Vegas Golden Knights Fall Against Los Angeles Kings 2-4, Splitting the Two Game Series

The Vegas Golden Knights took on the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday night, in the second game of their two game series, losing 4-2.

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo returned to the lineup Wednesday night, after being out of action for a couple of weeks, but the fully healthy Golden Knights lineup quickly lost another, after Ryan Reaves was a late scratch with, after suffering a lower body injury while skating warm ups. The loss of Reaves left the Golden Knights one skater short, as the puck dropped to begin the game.

“It was a late decision,” Golden Knights Head Coach Pete DeBoer said. “He (Reaves) took the warm up, and the decision was made after warm ups.”

The short bench seemed to show its effects early on, with Vegas falling behind 2-0 by the end of the first period.

“I thought we had a real poor start,” DeBoer said. “Then [we were] battling uphill the rest of the game to try and get back in the game.”

Golden Knights forward William Karlsson cut the deficit in half  in the second period, with his tally coming at 9:41, however the Kings would strike back with goals from forwards Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Alex Iafallo coming shortly after.

“4-1 is a tough hill to climb,” Golden Knights Captain Mark Stone said. “There were points in the game where we could have gotten ourselves back into it, but tonight we fell down just a little too far.”

The late stretch of the game would become more difficult, after Golden Knights forward Chandler Stephenson received a five minute major and a game misconduct for elbowing, leaving DeBoer with 10 forwards to climb out of a three goal deficit.

“When you go two men short it has an effect,” DeBoer said. “I’m not going to use that as an excuse for why we lost, we weren’t good enough to win tonight.”

Shea Theodore would score early on in the third period to bring Vegas within two, however neither team would score for the remainder of the game.

Kings goaltender Calvin Peterson put on a show Wednesday, with a 40 save win against Vegas, improving his career record against the club to 4-1-0. 

Looking ahead, the Golden Knights have a quick turnaround into a two game series against the Minnesota Wild. The first game is Thursday night at 7:30 PM, with the final game of the series and four game homestand happening Saturday night at 6 PM.