The Vegas Golden Knights (36-26-17) sacrificed a point in a winnable game against the Seattle Kraken (33-34-11) Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena. Vegas relinquished a two-goal lead in the third period and fell in the shootout for the 4-3 loss.
The Golden Knights’ winning streak under new bench boss John Tortorella was halted at four games, though the club’s point streak is still alive at seven. The Golden Knights are now 1-8 in the shootout this season and have 17 points in overtime and shootout losses.
Vegas led 3-1 just 71 seconds into the third period but yielded two goals in just over three minutes, one of which was the result of an extremely unfortunate bounce.
The Golden Knights had multiple chances to ice the shootout but were unable to take advantage in the 2-1 loss.
The Golden Knights remain in second place in the Pacific Division but are now tied with the third-place Ducks with 89 points apiece. Edmonton leads both teams by one point with three games to go.
The Golden Knights opened the scoring with Mark Stone’s 25th of the season just past the midway point of the opening frame.
It was the lone goal of the period.
Vegas and Seattle traded power-play tallies in the second.
Stone’s second of the night gave Vegas its second lead of the game less than a minute in.
It took most of the period, but the home team finally broke through at 17:54 when a Jared McCann shot got past Adin Hill on the man-advantage, cutting the Golden Knights’ lead to one after 40 minutes.
For the third period in a row, the Golden Knights were the first to light the lamp in the final frame. An odd-man rush featuring a slick passing play set up Brett Howden’s 12th of the year to restore Vegas’ two-goal lead.
But the Kraken responded with two goals in the span of 3:05.
The first came on a very unlucky break for the Golden Knights, as Berkley Catton’s dump-in hit a stanchion and took a very favorable bounce for Seattle.
Seattle! Kraken! GOAL!!!
The puck takes a weird bounce off the stanchion and pops right to Berkly Catton who jumps on the big ol’ juicy puck and the #SeaKraken pull within one!
Now THAT’S puck luck pic.twitter.com/QzvFdAEtvD
— 𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙮 𝙅𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨’ 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙢 (@DavyJonesLR) April 10, 2026
A continued Kraken surge led to an extended shift in Vegas’ end, with the road team unable to get a clear. Bobby McMann capitalized, resetting the score at 10:44 to make it a brand new ballgame.
The Golden Knights had multiple grade-A chances in overtime, though they also surrendered several odd-man rushes. However, neither team was able to pull ahead, setting up a shootout between two of the worst shootout teams in the league.
The Kraken came out on top 2-1 thanks to goals from Matty Beniers and Catton. Mitch Marner scored the lone shootout goal for Vegas.
This marked the first time the Golden Knights faced real adversity under Tortorella, whose record moves to 4-0-1 through his first five games.
The turning point of the game came on the bad bounce that ended up in Vegas’ net to make it a 3-2 game at 6:11 of the third period.
“It was a tough bounce,” Howden said. “I think maybe they created a little momentum off of that. They’re a fast team. They got a bounce there, and they kind of rolled with it. But for the most part, I liked our intentions and the way we were trying to play, and we still got a point, which is huge.”
Tortorella echoed this sentiment.
“It gives them life,” he said about the unlucky play. “We score one early in the period to go up by two, looking to try to take the will away from them. They get a bounce, gives them some life. Nothing we can do. We’ll take the point and get out of here.”
But at 3-2, the Kraken kept their foot on the gas, pulling even at 9:16 and forcing overtime.
Throughout the season, the Golden Knights have struggled to stop the bleeding when things go wrong. However, Howden said that wasn’t a factor tonight.
“It wasn’t like once they got one, they were really hemming us in and really keeping us in our zone,” he said. “I don’t think that was an issue tonight.”
Tortorella emphasized multiple times that he has no intention of overanalyzing this game or the outcome.
“We just move by it,” he said. “All we’re trying to do here is take each day at a time and try to get the best results we can. A lot of good things tonight, had some posts early on in the game. Give [Seattle] credit. They surge at certain times, they’re a fast team. I’m not gonna overdissect it. It’s not the time of year to be overdissecting. We’ll grab this point, get on the plane and get out to Colorado.”
Tortorella’s lone critique of Vegas’ performance was its inability to exit the zone cleanly, though he minimized its significance.
“There’s not a chance that I’m gonna overthink, overevaluate and overcoach with such short strokes left here,” he said. “I think the team knows how we need to play. I think for the most part they have done it. The biggest point for me is we spent too much time in our end zone, and we didn’t get out clean. So we’ll look at some of that, and then we’ll go.”
Admittedly, not much could have been done on the Catton goal, but the Golden Knights failed to get back on track and stumbled in the defensive end when the Kraken knotted things up at 3-3. From there, the Golden Knights were unable to finish their chances, including a few prime opportunities in extra time. On the flip side, they surrendered several odd-man rushes in overtime that could have ended the game. Eventually, they lost the skills competition for the eighth time in nine tries this season.
Hill wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great, though he did give his team multiple chances to recover with a solid effort in overtime and in the shootout. He finished the game with 30 saves on 33 shots for a .909 save percentage.
Stone hasn’t been the same player since the Olympic break, but he scored two goals in this one and was around the net all night. Howden, Vegas’ other goal-scorer, has found twine in three out of his last four games.
“He’s very versatile,” Tortorella said. “Can put him at center. It allows me to move some people around on different lines where he can play both wing and center. As I’m beginning to find out more and more, he’s a pretty important guy for this club.”
The Golden Knights will quickly move on focus their attention on Saturday’s game against the league-best Colorado Avalanche, who clinched the Presidents’ Trophy Thursday night.
The Golden Knights will conclude this four-game road trip in Denver before wrapping up the regular season with home tilts against Winnipeg and Seattle next week.
Photo courtesy of the Golden Knights