The Vegas Golden Knights look to bounce back from their first regulation loss in 10 games on Sunday night when they host the Ottawa Senators in Las Vegas.
The Golden Knights had a four-game winning streak and nine-game point streak snapped when they yielded four consecutive third-period goals in a 5-2 loss to the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Friday. It continued a trend of blown third-period leads by Vegas.
The Golden Knights saw 3-1 and 4-2 third-period leads disappear in an eventual 5-4 victory over San Jose last Sunday, pulling out the win in a shootout.
Then Calgary’s Yegor Sharangovich scored a six-on-five goal with a minute left on Tuesday to tie things at 4-4 before Mark Stone scored the game-winner for the Golden Knights 1:11 into overtime.
Vegas took a 2-1 lead early in the third period on Friday against Buffalo on a goal by Jack Eichel. But the Sabres answered with four straight goals, including a pair by Casey Mittelstadt, the final one an empty-netter to seal the win.
“None of us were good enough in the third period (Friday),” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We let another lead get away from us without getting points (Friday), so that’s a concern for me. If you’re a good hockey team, you’re at home three games in a row, you have the lead in the third period. … We found ways the other two nights. (Friday) it caught up to us.”
The good news? Vegas still leads the NHL with 45 points. But that is a small consolation to Cassidy.
“We’ve given up 12 goals at home here in the last three games,” Cassidy said. “We won’t count the empty-netter. That is a team thing, so that needs to improve.”
Ottawa, playing the third game of a five-game road trip, has lost three straight and comes in off a frustrating 5-4 loss at Dallas on Friday.
The Senators, last in the Eastern Conference with just 22 points, built a 4-2 second-period lead behind a pair of goals by Drake Batherson before surrendering three consecutive goals to the Stars.
“We treated this as a must-win game,” Batherson said. “We had a great start, we got a few bounces early and then the game turned out the way it did. But the work effort by everyone was definitely there.”
It was the second half of a back-to-back that began with a 4-2 loss at St. Louis on Thursday, a game that saw Ottawa fall behind 3-0 in the first 29 minutes.
“That was a lot better 60 minutes by us as a group,” said Senators defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who finished with three assists on Friday. “Second night of a back-to-back, and guys are out competing to the end. It’s one of the ones that just stings a bit, but we’ve got to continue to play that way and continue to push for better results.”
Ottawa coach D.J. Smith believes his team deserved to come out on top.
“We deserved a lot better than that,” Smith said. “The effort, the commitment was there for sure on a back-to-back. You want to get out of here with a win. It’s a tough one to lose (Friday). I thought the effort was so good.”
–Field Level Media
