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.
1-1 thanks to No. 61 👌 pic.twitter.com/kAHxhrnFJn
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 16, 2019
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.
Stop us if you’ve heard THIS one before too!
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 16, 2019
Karlsson ➡️ Marchessault ➡️ Smith 🚨 pic.twitter.com/oeFgiDIN68
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…
Notes & Stats
This was the Vegas Golden Knights lineup, which hasn’t changed for the last three games now…
Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Zykov-Eakin-Glass
Carrier-Nosek-Reaves
McNabb-Theodore
Merrill-Holden
Hague-Engelland
Fleury
And these were the healthy scratches for the Golden Knights:
- Malcolm Subban
- Jake Bischoff
- Brandon Pirri
Here are some key stats from the game:
- SOG – NSH: 39 – VGK: 35
- FO% – NSH: 49% – VGK: 51%
- PP – NSH: 1/5 – VGK: 1/4
- PIM – NSH: 18 – VGK: 20
- HITS – NSH: 28 – VGK: 41
- BLKS – NSH: 19 – VGK: 14
- GVA – NSH: 3 – VGK: 11
Here is the official scoring summary from the game:
- Kyle Turris (2) – Ellis (5), Grimaldi (2) – 2:14 / 1st
- Mark Stone (5) PPG – Glass (3), Stastny (3) – 9:55 / 1st
- Reilly Smith (5) – Marchessault (3), Karlsson (7) – 17:23 / 1st
- Colton Sissons (2) – Bonino (2) – :44 / 2nd
- Calle Jarnkrok (1) – Arvidsson (3), Josi (4) – 5:08 / 2nd
- Filip Forsberg (5) – Unassisted – 6:52 / 2nd
- Nick Bonino (2) PPG – Turris (2), Ellis (6) – 4:00 / 3rd
Let’s go over some notes from the game:
- The Vegas Golden Knights dropped their first loss in three games and they are now 4-3-0 on the year.
- The Nashville Predators are now 4-2-0 to start the 2019-20 NHL regular season in what was the second game of a three-game road trip.
- Marc-Andre Fleury, making his sixth start of the year, made some big stops as he saved 34 of 39 shots although he was at fault for Filip Forsberg’s goal in the second period.
- Mark Stone continues his hot streak with his goal in the first period making it five goals and five assists for 10 points in seven games.
- Cody Glass racked up his fifth NHL point with the primary assist on Stone’s goal, producing a beautiful no-look dish. Patrick Mahomes, eat your heart out.
- Paul Stastny also got an assist on Stone’s power play goal and that is now six points (three goals, three assists) in the center’s last three games.
- The top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith continues to roll as they all recorded a point against the Predators.
- Smith scored his fifth goal of the year, Karlsson picked up his seventh assist and Marchessault tallied his third helper of the year.
- The trio have now combined for 17 points in just seven games, throwing it back to their breakout year in 2017-18.
- Vegas have been killing it with their special teams through seven games and they scored their fourth consecutive power play in the first period thanks to Mark Stone.
- Their man advantage went 1-for-4 in total but it still ranks sixth in the NHL with a percentage of 29.2.
- And the Golden Knights still have one of the best penalty kills in the NHL after it went 1-for-4 against the Predators. Vegas’ PK is now ranked No. 3 in the NHL (92.6), behind the Vancouver Canucks (93.8) and the Edmonton Oilers (95.0).
- Vegas don’t drop the gloves often but they did it twice against Nashville, and it wasn’t your usual suspects either. Mark Stone danced with Preds Captain Roman Josi and then Max Pacioretty dropped the gloves with Dan Hamhuis.
- The Knights’ fourth line had another bad night at the office as they were outshot 5-1, out-chanced 4-0 and outscored 2-0.
- Nashville have gotten depth scoring all year long and their bottom six came up trumps again with Kyle Turris, Colton Sissons and Nick Bonino all getting on the scoreboard.
- And their top six forward unit also delivered with Calle Jarnkrok scoring while Filip Forsberg recorded his fifth goal of the year.
- Vegas was strong in the faceoff circle again, winning 51 percent of their draws compared to Nashville’s 49% winning percentage.
- The Golden Knights out-hit the Preds by a massive margin of 41-28, although they did cough up 11 giveaways compared to Nashville’s three giveaways.
- The Official Three Stars of the Game were: 1. Kyle Turris 2. Colton Sissons 3. Cody Glass.
Next. Big guns coming up huge. dark
The Vegas Golden Knights are at T-Mobile Arena again on Thursday with the Ottawa Senators in town, before the Knights set off on their travels for a three-game road trip.