Vegas Golden Knights continue to sink with first loss to Blackhawks

It isn’t quite the Titanic yet but it is heading in that direction after the Vegas Golden Knights dropped their fourth straight with a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday Night Hockey.

November has been like the house of horrors for the Vegas Golden Knights who have lost four straight games, six of their last seven and are now 4-4-2 at T-Mobile Arena this year.

And, to make matters worse, the Knights had a 100 percent record against the Chicago Blackhawks prior to last night’s contest, but that streak was surrendered on what was another worrying night for Vegas.

It all started so well for the Golden Knights, however, who raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to a William Carrier deflection and a power play goal from William Karlsson.

However, the momentum started to shift when the Vegas defense committed a cardinal sin by leaving Patrick Kane open to execute his trademark one-timer, before Alex Tuch thought he had made it 3-1 only for the goal to be overturned.

And that setback completely swung the pendulum in Chicago’s favor as the Blackhawks scored four unanswered goals to take complete control of the contest and heap more misery on their hosts.

Nate Schmidt did pot his second goal of the year with less than a minute remaining in the third period, but it was too little too late as the Vegas Golden Knights fell to 9-8-3 on the year.

Let’s delve into the game in full by dissecting it period-by-period…

The Game

First Period – When things haven’t been going your way the last thing you want is to give away a penalty shot to start the game, but that is exactly what happened for the Golden Knights as Nic Hague hooked Zack Smith on a breakaway.

However, Smith went glove-side but pinged his shot off the crossbar and it was a hefty bullet dodged for the Knights.

Corey Crawford made a superb save on Reilly Smith but Vegas were not denied for long as Nic Hague fired a wrister towards goal and it deflected off William Carrier and into the net at 2:58.

And the Golden Knights were looking to go for the kill when given a power play, and it paid off at 6:29.

Jonathan Marchessault fed William Karlsson with a sublime feed and the forward had the time to slide a backhand shot through the pads of Crawford.

Alex Tuch also registered an assist on the tuck in what was his first game back from an upper-body injury, while the power play had looked a lot more aggressive than it had in previous games.

However, the Vegas defense buckled immediately and put up a huge stinker as Patrick Kane was left all alone to crank a one-timer from the circle past Marc-Andre Fleury at 6:45, with Dylan Strome providing a brilliant cross-ice pass.

Fleury had to come up big on a number of occasions as his defense coughed up a plethora of giveaways, and the first period ended with Vegas holding a slender lead having outshot the Blackhawks 16-8.

Second Period – It all came crashing down for the Golden Knights in the middle frame, however, and it started with Alex Tuch thinking he had made it 3-1 only for the officials to rule that it had hit the crossbar and bounced out.

And that proved to be the turning point in the contest as Calvin de Haan ripped a wrister past Marc-Andre Fleury to make it a tied game and, in the blink of an eye, the Blackhawks made it a 3-2 game thanks to Erik Gustafsson‘s wrist shot.

It was a nightmare sequence for the Golden Knights as their defense delivered a stinker yet again, and it didn’t help that they were coming up against a hot goalie in Corey Crawford too.

Crawford denied Mark Stone on a breakaway before Jonathan Marchessault completely fanned on a penalty shot.

And a frustrating period came to a close with Crawford pulling out another great stop to this time deny Cody Glass with a pad save, after Mark Stone had fed the rookie with a sublime saucer pass.

Vegas again outshot the Blackhawks 15-9 but they found themselves a goal down heading into the final period.

Third Period – Corey Crawford made another stop on Mark Stone to start the period, and that led to another goal for the Chicago Blackhawks with Kirby Dach scoring on his own rebound, with two of the rookie’s three goals coming against the Knights.

Cody Eakin left the game hurt and the night only got worse for Vegas as Dylan Strome skated in on a three-on-two rush before icing the game with a wrist shot.

Nate Schmidt did get on the board with a wrister from the point but it was too little too late as the Vegas Golden Knights suffered their fourth straight loss.

Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…