Another night and another loss for the Vegas Golden Knights who dropped a 4-2 stinker to the red hot Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Monday night.
Looking to snap a two-game losing streak, the Vegas Golden Knights fell behind early to the Stars who never looked back and tied a franchise record with seven consecutive victories.
It was another bad night at the office for the Golden Knights who gave themselves too big a mountain to climb after spotting a very, very good Dallas team a 2-0 lead.
Alexander Radulov got the Stars on the board midway through the first period, and Esa Lindell made it a two-goal game minutes later moments after the Knights had a chance to make it a tied game.
The Knights did get on the board in the second thanks to Shea Theodore‘s second goal in as many games, but that was quickly wiped out by Jason Dickinson at the end of the period.
Dallas were allowing the Golden Knights to hang in the game and Paul Stastny‘s seventh goal of the year in the third period made it a contest, although Radulov’s second goal of the night ended any hopes.
Let’s delve into the game by breaking it down period-by-period…
The Game
First Period – Jon Merrill took a two-minute penalty for tripping inside the opening 25 seconds of the game, and that really set the tone for what was to come.
Vegas killed off that power play but it wasn’t long until they were back on the penalty kill following a slashing call on Jonathan Marchessault after the forward had sent a one-timer wide of the net.
Reilly Smith got a shorthanded chance, which is as common in life as Death and Taxes, but the penalty kill couldn’t get the job done again as the red hot Stars landed the first blow of the night at 11:42.
John Klingberg let rip with a shot from the point and Alexander Radulov was positioned well in-front of the net to get a deflection on the shot.
And it only got worse for the Golden Knights at 13:25 as Tyler Seguin and Andrew Cogliano played a neat game of tic-tac-toe before the latter sent a sublime cross-ice feed over to Esa Lindell who went five-hole on Malcolm Subban.
Speaking of Subban, the backup goalie misplayed the puck behind the net but, to his credit, got back in position to make a brilliant recovery save with his glove as Dallas outshot the Knights 16-6.
Second Period – Vegas had an early power play in the middle frame but they couldn’t take advantage as Ben Bishop kept out deflected shots from William Carrier and Tomas Nosek.
But the power play would become a problem as the Golden Knights went on to have a further four minutes on the man advantage, but failed to record a single shot on goal as Dallas killed off both power plays with ease.
They did come close to converting on the PP, though, as Shea Theodore skated in before flipping a backhand shot past Bishop seconds after the man advantage had expired.
But the Knights couldn’t build on that goal and it was a two-goal game again heading into the final period after Jason Dickinson received a feed from Alexander Radulov on a 3-on-two rush, before beating Malcolm Subban with a shot that bounced off the goalie and went in.
The Golden Knights were giving the Stars far too much space and the hosts’ plethora of big hitters were exploiting it time and time again, despite being outshot 13-2 by Vegas in the second period.
Third Period – Vegas got a huge boost at 1:23 in the final period as Paul Stastny backhanded a feed from Mark Stone past Ben Bishop in what was his 900th career game in the NHL.
Malcolm Subban made a stop on Jason Dickinson after Alex Tuch coughed up a bad turnover, and a bad hooking penalty from Cody Glass led to the final goal of the game.
On the power play no less than 10 seconds, Alexander Radulov potted his second goal at 12:11 after backhanding a rebound from John Klingberg’s shot from the point past Subban.
Subban was pulled with over two minutes remaining but it was a tactic that didn’t pay off as the Vegas Golden Knights suffered their third straight loss.
Let’s go over some notes & stats from the game…