The Vegas Golden Knights returned to The Fortress Wednesday night to face the St. Louis Blues in their third game of the season.
The Golden Knights entered the game 1-1, coming off of a loss on the road to the Los Angeles Kings 6-2.
The Blues on the other hand, entered Wednesday night a perfect 2-0 bringing a 7-4 road win against the Arizona Coyotes to Las Vegas.
St. Louis also began their two game stint without forward Pavel Buchneivich, who was suspended by the NHL for headbutting Coyotes player Lawson Crouse.
Vegas took the ice with their two top scorers out with injury; Max Pacioretty and captain Mark Stone. Both players went down with an injury in their loss to LA.
As soon as the puck dropped, St. Louis got a great jump on Vegas. The Blues displayed pretty passing, good offensive zone time, and great scoring chances came in bunches.
The Golden Knights looked out of sync, missing breakout passes, defensive zone assignments, and prime scoring chances when they got them.
Vegas did get a stroke of luck however, as midway through the first period Alec Martinez sprung Reilly Smith on a breakout pass that turned into a 2-on-1 for the Golden Knights, and a goal for William Karlsson to put the VGK on the board.
The Golden Knights saw another 2-on-1 opportunity come their way after a missed cross crease finds its way to Jonathan Marchessault. Marchessault released a quick shot off the wing on the rush, but rang it off the crossbar.
St. Louis came back to life after goaltender Jordan Binnington made a series of saves and Vladamir Tarasenko got hit on a breakaway, but VGK net minder Robin Lehner stood tall and made the stop.
Vegas took their one goal lead into the second period, where Brandon Saad tied the game three minutes into the middle frame.
Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo came ever so close to giving Vegas their second lead of the game, but hit another post and the puck skipped away from the net.
The game remained tied into the third period. Despite multiple powerplay opportunities for both teams, neither team could break the tie.
At the halfway mark of the period, Vegas would go on another powerplay, however under unfavorable circumstances for VGK faithful.
Martinez drew a tripping call, but careened into the boards and got up slow. Martinez had a short chat with the athletic trainer and made his way down the tunnel towards the dressing room.
He did not return to the game.
Pietrangelo gave St. Louis a perfect scoring chance that they converted after turning the puck over at the blue line. The turnover resulted in a 3-on-0 for the Blues, and an easy tap-in goal for Tarasenko.
Vegas was stymied for the remainder of the game, and the Blues’ Ivan Barbashev potted the empty net goal to ice the game.
“Turnovers tonight were an issue,” Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer said post-game. “I thought early in the game we were a little loose around our net but as the game went on it was essentially turnovers.”
DeBoer was not the only one who noticed the turnovers and defensive lapses. Lehner made key stops over the course of the night, but gave up the game winning goal on a breakaway.
“From my point of view, we gotta clean [it] up,” Lehner said. “I don't know how many breakways and 2-on1-s we faced but it hasn't been normal since I got here, sowe gotta clean it up.”
With Martienez dealing with an undisclosed injury, the long list of inactives continues to be a topic of discussion for the Golden Knights along with the correlation of the lack of offense to the injured players.
“I think there’s a little more on us to create opportunities,” Vegas forward Reilly Smith said. “I think the main focus for our group right now is to shut teams down. Chances will create for themselves when teams are getting frustrated and trying to push for offense. We need a better mindset and to look at these games with a playoff mindset. [We] can’t let these losses keep piling up.”
The Golden Knights are back on the ice at T-Mobile Arena Friday night against the Edmonton Oilers.
Puck drop for that game comes at 7p.m. and can be viewed on AT&T Sportsnet.
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