The Vegas Golden Knights got the first loss of their current 7-game home stand Tuesday night when they hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Knights came into the game trying to extend their win streak to a season high five games, and Marc-Andre Fleury was looking to get his third consecutive win against his former team. However, the Penguins had other plans. After losing at home in October to the Golden Knights, the Pens were looking to get some revenge in Vegas.
The Golden Knights got off to another slow start offensively, but this time they weren’t able to overcome the deficit. This is the second game in a row the Knights went down to their opponents 3-0 and had to claw their way back into the game.
Evgeni Malkin started off the scoring less than three minutes into the first period, as he was able to get a backhand shot by Fleury. Just a few minutes later, Patric Hornqvist was able to add to the Penguins lead when he got his first career goal by tipping in the blocked shot of Jack Johnson.
The second period brought goals by both teams. After Dominik Kahun was able to tact on a power play goal to extend the Penguins lead to 3-0, the Golden Knights decided it was time to kick it into gear.
Max Pacioretty got Vegas on the board when he was able to fire a shot by the Penguins goalie, Tristan Jarry, after a Pittsburgh defender initially blocked the first shot by Nicolas Hague.
Paul Stastny was able to follow up that goal with one of his own. His goal came on Vegas’ second power play of the period, when he redirected a shot by Shea Theodore to cut the Penguins lead to one goal going into the third period.
Brandon Tanev tried to put the Knights’ fire out when he scored just two minutes into the third period. Tanev grabbed the puck at the blue-line and blew passed the Vegas defender to wrap a shot around Fleury to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead.
Even after the Penguins took a two-goal lead, Vegas wasn’t ready to give up. Reilly Smith was able to cut lead back to one goal after he was able to chip a shot up and over Jarry with a little over seven minutes to play.
After many shot attempts in the final minutes, and getting a 6 on 4 advantage with a power play along with an empty net, the Golden Knights fell short of their comeback and lost the game to the Penguins, 4-3.
The Golden Knights will look to bounce back from this loss when they host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday 1/09 at 7:00pm.
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