Knights unable to come all the way back vs. Ducks

LAS VEGAS — In the nine-plus year history of the Vegas Golden Knights, they’ve never come back from a four-goal deficit to win, or register a point.

They still haven’t. But not from a lack of trying.

After spotting Anaheim a 4-0 lead, the Knights had a furious third-period rally and nearly came up with the equalizer in the final seconds. But Lukas Dostal managed to keep the puck out of his net when it counted most and it enabled the Ducks to hang on for a 4-3 win in their season opener.

“You never want to get down in that situation,” Knights coach Ryan Craig said. “I liked our response but it took us a while to respond.”

Anaheim’s four goals came in a 7:11 span, beginning with eight seconds left in the first period on Bennett Sennecke’s breakaway and ending 7:03 into the second period when Leo Carlsson scored off a rebound after Carter Hart had denied Cutter Gauthier, then A.J. Greer. In between were tallies from Alex Killorn and Jeff Mallot.

“Against a team like that, with their high-end players, you give them time and space, they’re going to make plays and they did,” Knights captain Mark Stone said. “We didn’t make it hard enough for them.”

You may recall last year the Knights found themselves chasing the game more often than they would prefer. Craig said that it’s a new season and he’s not going to worry that a trend could continue to manifest itself. Still, spotting an opponent four goals is not a for mule for success.

“You always want to feel confident that when you’re down in a game if you play your game you can come back,” Stone said. “If we play 60 minutes of our type of hockey, no matter who scores the first goal, we still feel confident. When you play these games, 1-0 is fine, 2-0 its fine. You feel you can come back. But when it gets to three, four, it starts to be a tall task as you saw tonight. You can’t start cheating the game. You have to find better ways to push back.”
 
Perhaps the first sign something was amiss for the Knights Friday was there was just one Zamboni available to clean the ice between periods instead of the usual two. But that wasn’t the only clue.

Defensemen were caught out of position. Pucks that normally land on teammates’ sticks were winding up in their skates or missing their mark entirely.

“Our execution seemed a little bit off,” Craig said. “Pucks were going through our sticks at times.”

The Knights and their crowd of 17,619 needed a spark and they got it from Shea Theodore, who scored from the right faceoff circle with 15:22 remaining to end Dostal’s shutout bid. The Ducks challenged for offsides but the call was confirmed and Anaheim was penalized for delay of game.

That led to Tomas Hertl beating Dostal in close for a power play goal to cut it to 4-2 as the Knights scored twice in a 1:28 span. Braeden Bowman cut it to 4-3 with 2:50 remaining and with Hart pulled for an extra attacker, the Knights swarmed the Ducks in their own end.

But Dostal came through late, getting stops just inches from the goal line to keep the puck out of his net and give Anaheim a win in its opener.

“You’re never going to see this team quit. That’s why we had playoff success and regular season success as a team,” Stone said. “We continue to push. But when you get down in a hole 4-0, you’re not going to come back very often.”

Craig said: “I thought we had a good first period. You never want to give up a goal late in a period. But it was the start of the second period that did us in.”

Vegas now hits the road for games in Vancouver Sunday and Seattle Tuesday. They’ve already dropped a Pacific Division contest with Friday’s loss. The Canucks have scored 13 goals in their two games thus far, second-most fun the NHL.

“I think it’ll be good for this group to get on the road,” said forward Brett Howden.