Vegas Golden Knights: Mistake-laden second period proves costly

Costly errors in a mistake-riddled second period was the story of the game for the Vegas Golden Knights after they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena.

Looking for their third straight win, the Vegas Golden Knights dominated at times but were made to pay for making costly errors and, as a result, are now 4-3-0 on the year.

Kyle Turris fired the Nashville Predators into an early lead after deflecting Ryan Ellis‘ wrister past Marc-Andre Fleury, although the Golden Knights responded in a strong fashion and went on to boss the rest of the first period.

Mark Stone and Reilly Smith each scored their fifth goal of the year as the Knights outshot the Predators 18-10.

However, Nashville’s offensive firepower and depth scoring both came to the fore in the second period and they took full advantage of mistakes offered up by their hosts as Colton Sissons, Calle Jarnkrok and Filip Forsberg put their team firmly in the driving seat.

And veteran center Nick Bonino iced the game early in the third period to move the Predators to 4-2-0 and, in the process, inflicting a third loss of the year on the Vegas Golden Knights who just lost the key battles in the key areas.

The Game

First Period – Sticking with the same lineup card for the third straight game, the Golden Knights were hoping to fly out of the traps but they did the complete opposite as Kyle Turris deflected a Ryan Ellis shot past Marc-Andre Fleury at 2:14.

But, give credit where credit is due because Vegas composed themselves and they began to insert their dominance by killing off a power play thanks to three huge saves from Fleury, showing why they have the No. 1 ranked penalty kill in the NHL.

Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne did well to deny Valentin Zykov and then Cody Glass on the rebound, but he was unable to prevent Mark Stone from converting on the Knights’ fourth straight power play with Glass laying on an absolute beauty of a dish.

And, at 17:23, it was advantage Vegas thanks to that good old top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, who are throwing it back to 2017-18 with their current high level play.

Winning the faceoff in their own zone, rookie defenseman Nic Hague played a pass off the boards and Karlsson began the rush, which ended with Marchessault firing a shot on Rinne and Smith was on hand to convert the rebound.

And a very good first period for the Knights ended with Mark Stone and Nashville Captain Roman Josi dropping the gloves, with Stone winning that particular bout much to the delight of the home crowd.

Second Period – After outshooting the Predators 18-10 in the first period the momentum was with the Knights heading into the middle frame, but it didn’t take long for the pendulum to swing in Nashville’s favor.

Colton Sissons got on the board at :44 after whacking and hacking the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury, and a thunderous one-timer from Calle Jarnkrok from a sublime Viktor Arvidsson feed proved to be the go-ahead goal.

And a rare mistake from Fleury made matters worse for the Knights as the goalie misplayed the puck straight to Filip Forsberg behind the net and the elite winger had an empty net to tuck the puck into.

Third Period – Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant mixed up his lines in order to spark a comeback in the final period, but it had the opposite effect as the Preds scored on the power play with Nick Bonino tipping a Kyle Turris shot past Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury made a big save before Max Pacioretty and Dan Hamhuis dropped the gloves, and that was that with the Golden Knights dropping to 4-3-0 on the year following a costly second period.

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