The Vegas Golden Knights (14-6-9) saw their four-game winning streak come to an end when their rally fell short against the New York Islanders (17-11-3) Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
The Golden Knights tied the game with just 12 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, but Vegas was unable to convert on a 4-on-3 power play in extra time and eventually lost 1-0 in the shootout.
The Golden Knights are 2-0-1 on their current five-game road trip.
Vegas got goals from Noah Hanifin, Mitch Marner, Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev, who snapped an 11-game goalless drought with the late equalizer.
For the fourth game in a row, the Golden Knights lit the lamp first, as Hanifin cashed in on a rebound at 12:02 of the opening frame. Shea Theodore recorded the secondary helper on the play for his 300th career assist.
Four minutes later, Marner doubled Vegas’ lead with his sixth tally in his first campaign in Sin City. It was almost identical to Hanifin’s goal, as a rebound off Ilya Sorokin’s pad popped right to Marner, who buried it.
But the Golden Knights got caught watching the play in the final minute of the period, and Bo Horvat made them pay for it. His first of the night made it a 2-1 game with just 27 seconds left in the first.
Much like Sunday’s game at the Garden, the Golden Knights never got to their game in the second period. Instead, New York added two more goals to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.
The first came roughly four minutes into the middle frame, as Marc Gatacomb scored on the doorstep after Vegas lost a race to the net.
At 13:30, a wide-open Simon Holmstrom put the Islanders ahead on a goal scored in transition, beating Carter Hart glove-side for the home team’s third consecutive goal.
But the Golden Knights bounced back on a gorgeous goal by Barbashev, who made a diving, one-handed play to chip the puck past Sorokin just 1:27 into the third period. Braeden Bowman made a series of excellent passes on the give-and-go to set it up.
But a penalty — labeled a “very marginal call” by Bruce Cassidy after the game — set up an Islanders power play. Theodore got caught without a stick, and Horvat capitalized with his second goal of the game to put the Islanders back on top at 10:15.
The Golden Knights came alive after this goal, stringing together multiple excellent shifts and grinding away to reset the score. Vegas pulled Hart with 2:20 to go, and the Golden Knights got a late power play when Adam Pelech cleared the puck over the glass for delay of game.
This was Sorokin’s best stretch of the game, as he thwarted countless chances by the Golden Knights. Perhaps his best save came on a one-timer by Dorofeyev, who delivered one of his best performances since his red-hot start to the season.
Eventually, however, Dorofeyev broke through. On yet another rebound goal for the Golden Knights, Dorofeyev elevated the puck over Sorokin’s pad to even things up at 4-4 with just 12 seconds on the clock. Notably, the play would not have happened without a stellar keep by Marner.
It was the second straight game in which the Golden Knights tied the game in the last minute of regulation, and it helped Vegas rescue a point.
The Islanders were called for high-sticking with three seconds left in regulation, setting up 1:57 on the man-advantage at the start of extra time. However, Vegas was held to the perimeter, and the Golden Knights’ hesitation limited them to just two shots. The rest of overtime was primarily a possession game, with both sides playing conservatively to reach a shootout.
It was a bizarre shootout, as multiple Golden Knights skaters weren’t able to get a shot off, and players on both teams failed to hit the net. After attempts by Dorofeyev, Marner and Jack Eichel failed, Theodore lost the puck on his way in on Sorokin, preventing him from taking a shot at all. In the end, the Islanders won the shootout 1-0 on Emil Heineman’s goal in the fourth round for the 5-4 finish.
Hart finished the game with 23 saves on 27 shots, suffering his first loss in three starts this season (all of which went to overtime). He still made some key stops and gave his team a chance to win.
Eichel recorded his third multi-point performance on this road trip, and Mark Stone extended his point streak to 13 games (he has recorded at least a point in every game he’s played this season). The Golden Knights got a goal from a defenseman and lit the lamp four times. However, it wasn’t enough to come away with two points.
The Golden Knights did a lot of things well, including getting the first goal, overcoming multiple deficits, forcing overtime to earn a point and competing until the very end. However, it was another game where a dip in the second period proved costly, and it’s the ninth time this season Vegas has lost in extra time. This shootout was particularly disastrous, but the Golden Knights failed to end it with a power play right out of the gate.
“I liked a lot of our game,” Cassidy said, citing the fact that Vegas got the lead in the first period and tied it early in the third.
He said he thought the penalty on Dorofeyev that set up Horvat’s power-play marker in the third was “a tough one. … We didn’t get the kill at the end of the day, but we got a goal with the goalie out, so that’s another positive.”
It was easier said than done due to the play of Sorokin.
There are times when the Golden Knights run into a red-hot backup goaltender who stands on his head and turns aside 45 shots. This was not one of those occasions. However, Sorokin is one of the top goalies in the league, and he proved it Tuesday night against Vegas. At times, he was sensational, and he made countless saves on grade-A chances.
He had one stretch late in the third period leading up to Dorofeyev’s goal where he made six or seven remarkable saves in tight, robbing the Golden Knights time after time.
But the Golden Knights were persistent, and they played with impressive patience, poise and confidence. They moved the puck around methodically, they didn’t seem overwhelmed or rushed, they didn’t make poor decisions and they continued to chip away. Eventually, Dorofeyev found a way, earning a much-deserved goal on a night when he had seven scoring chances and five shots on eight attempts.
That being said, the 4-on-3 to start overtime looked like a different team. It wasn’t the full unit, and the Islanders defended well. However, the Golden Knights spent the majority of the two minutes sending the puck around the perimeter. They were patient, but it looked like they didn’t have a plan. They didn’t do enough to open lanes and create chances. They seemed cautious rather than aggressive despite having a chance to end the game then and there. They didn’t take it to the Islanders or force Sorokin to make more highlight-reel saves, managing just two shots. The Islanders’ defensive structure was solid, but the urgency wasn’t there for the Golden Knights.
“The power play in overtime, we’ve got to be generating more,” Cassidy said. “Three of our most creative guys are Jack and Stoney and Mitch; we’re going to have to find a way to make that work in a 4-on-3 setting. As a staff, we’ll revisit that one.”
The Golden Knights also found another gear once they fell behind. If they had shown the same level of desperation at 2-0, 2-1 or 2-2, they may have been able to create more separation, or at least give themselves a chance to take the lead in regulation.
Scoring the late goal to rescue a point was significant, but at some point, the Golden Knights are going to have to figure out how to close out games in a 60-minute window.
The Golden Knights have reached overtime 12 times in 29 games this season. For context, they did it just 14 times in 82 games last season.
There are cases, like tonight’s contest against the Islanders, where tying it late and salvaging a point is a positive. However, there have been too many occasions when the Golden Knights have failed to execute and close out games. It’s important to collect points, even if it’s only one; but at this rate, Vegas is leaving way too many on the table.
The Golden Knights will look to bounce back on Thursday when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.