Vegas Golden Knights’ slump continue after shocking collapse in Detroit
This road trip has been like the house of horrors for the Vegas Golden Knights who allowed a goal in the dying seconds of regulation time to drop a 3-2 decision to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
After opening the four-game road trip with a victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Vegas Golden Knights have now ended it with three straight losses and this one at Little Caesars Arena was perhaps the toughest to take.
And, what has developed as an alarming trend in recent games, the Golden Knights yet again imploded in the third period and they gave up another lead which again proved costly.
It all started so well, too, with Jonathan Marchessault tallying his fourth goal of the year after one-timing a Reilly Smith feed beyond Jonathan Bernier in the Detroit goal.
Andreas Athanasiou made it a tied game at 19:15 in the first period with a power play goal, the third goal they had allowed on the man advantage in the last three games.
The Knights did strike back in the second period, though, as Max Pacioretty sniped one low past Bernier after being fed a sublime dish from Nicolas Roy.
However, that was as good as it got for Vegas as their inability to play a full 60-minute game reared its ugly head yet again.
At 10:57 in the third period, Madison Bowey managed to fire a wrist shot past Malcolm Subban while falling after the Golden Knights failed to clear the puck out of their own zone.
And, with just seconds remaining in regulation, Robby Fabbri fed Anthony Mantha with a sublime pass and the forward drived to the net before wristing the game-winner past Subban.
Brayden McNabb made the brave decision to pinch but he executed it horribly which allowed Mantha to get in behind for his 11th goal of the year, while Fabbri has three points (two goals, one assist) in two games for the Red Wings since being acquired in a trade from the St. Louis Blues.
What makes this loss tough to take is the fact that it came against one of the worst teams in the NHL in Detroit, who had previously lost 12 of 13 before beating the Boston Bruins on Friday.
It was arguably the Knights’ worst and toughest loss of the year so far, and it dropped them to 9-7-3 on the season and 1-2-1 on the road trip.
And six losses in the last eight games means that the Golden Knights are now stuck in a rut, and they have to wait until Wednesday when they faceoff against the Chicago Blackhawks at T-Mobile Arena to try and get out of it.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…