Knights' comeback wasted in 5-4 shootout loss to Capitals

LAS VEGAS — Next door to T-Mobile Arena is a roller coaster that runs up and around the New York-New York Hotel and Casino.

You can get dizzy just watching people ride it. Which is what it must have felt like for the 17,922 that witnessed the Golden Knights-Washington Capitals contest Saturday.

Two teams desperate for points. One moment, the Capitals were completely in charge and on cruise control. Then it was the Knights who took charge, scoring four unanswered goals to take the lead. Then it was the Caps’ turn as they cashed in on a power play after they we’re in the midst of initially killing a double minor that turned into a 4-on-3 power play and eventually a 5-on-4 advantage.

But eventually, every roller coaster comes to a screeching halt. And in the end, it was the Caps who prevailed 5-4 in a shootout in one of the craziest games this season.

The good news? The Kings got smoked at home by Utah and Vegas put a little more distance between itself and L.A. by picking up one point. They now have 80 points, four ahead of the Kings but three behind the second-place Oilers in the Pacific Division.

“It seems like we’re limping along,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said of his team’s current level of play. “But parts of our game are really good. There’s a lot of positives. We just have to tie it all together.”

The Knights looked like a team that was continuing to head in the wrong direction as they trailed 3-0 in the second period and found themselves on the penalty kill. But former Caps center Nic Dowd beat former Golden Knight Logan Thompson for a shorthanded goal. Twenty-five seconds later, Rasmus Andersson potted a shorty of his own to make it 3-2. It was the first time since Dec. 27, 2024 that Vegas scored two shorthanded during the same penalty kill. Brayden McNabb and Jack Eichel did it 23 seconds apart against San Jose.

Saturday, Eichel tied it 3-3 from in close to change the trajectory of the contest going into the third. And when Mitch Marner scored from long range on the power play 31 seconds into the period, it gave Vegas its first lead of the night, 4-3.

“It didn’t look good for us,” Cassidy said. “You’ve seen that movie. You’ve seen that movie. You’ve seen that movie. Good for the guys to bounce back. We needed something positive to happen offensively. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves when we don’t score. We have to keep working at it.”

But Washington answered as Marner himself was sitting in the penalty box for tripping as Dylan Strome scored with just five seconds left on the penalty to tie it 4-4. The Knights failed to win a faceoff on three separate occasions during the penalty kill and it eventually cost them.

The Knights did little in overtime and less in the shootout as Andersson, Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev all failed to deliver. Strome, whose goal gave Washington renewed life, beat Adin Hill in the first round of the shootout and that was all the Caps needed.

“We can’t change everything,” Cassidy said. “The process we’re going through. Our analytics say we’re a good defensive team. We have to get a few more saves. That position has to outplay the other guy’s.

“Today we had enough to score. Four goals is enough. It’s too late in the year to change everything. We can’t start playing 6-5 games. We’re not going to do that.”