Despite their best efforts the Vegas Golden Knights were unable to make it three straight wins after falling 2-1 to the San Jose Sharks in Overtime on Thursday night.
The Vegas Golden Knights have now gone 11 straight Overtimes without a goal after losing to their bitter rivals in a close game at T-Mobile Arena.
The contest started with San Jose forward Timo Meier laying a huge hit on Nic Hague in the open ice, with the rookie defenseman okay in the wake of that collision.
Marc-Andre Fleury was sharp early on and he was also bailed out after Meier had a goal ruled out for goalie interference.
But Vegas soon got in their groove and they ended up outshooting the Sharks by a huge margin of 14-6 in the first period, although it was a tied game heading into the middle frame.
However, it didn’t take long for a team to get on the board in the second although it was San Jose who drew first blood.
Meier, who made himself known throughout the first period with a plethora of huge hits, opened the scoring with a sublime goal after skating hard to the net while holding off Nate Schmidt before backhanding the puck past Fleury.
Fleury then flashed a quick glove to stop Meier from recording his second goal, before Cody Eakin fired a shot high after being fed by Jonathan Marchessault on a two-on-one following a bad turnover from Brent Burns.
Vegas had outshot the Sharks 28-17 through the first two periods, and they finally got their just rewards when Brayden McNabb made it a tied game at 9:42 in the third after ripping a shot past Aaron Dell from the top of the circle.
Fleury was called upon to make another big save late in the period, this time sliding across to deny Joe Thornton and then swallowing up the rebound.
So, after three eventful periods, we were consigned to Overtime and both Fleury and Dell were standing on their head.
Dell denied Nate Schmidt on a breakaway and then robbed William Karlsson on the rebound, who was also thwarted by Dell moments later.
However, it was the Sharks who came up with the goods at 3:20 in Overtime, with Logan Couture skating in on a breakaway and then finishing his own rebound to inflict a first loss of this homestand on the Golden Knights.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…