Vegas Golden Knights blown out by Rangers in ugly loss on home ice

After carving out a five-game point streak, the Vegas Golden Knights were brought back to earth with an almighty crash by the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Returning home after a week on the east coast, the Vegas Golden Knights looked to keep their run  going but were blown out 5-0 by the Rangers at T-Mobile Arena.

It all started so well for the Golden Knights, too, who absolutely peppered the visiting goal only to be denied by Alexandar Georgiev, who was outstanding between the pipes for the Blueshirts.

With Georgiev unbreachable, that gave the Rangers the confidence to inflict some damage on the Knights with Artemi Panarin beating Malcolm Subban with a wrister midway through the first period.

Chris Kreider got the Rangers on the board again seconds later, before Jacob Trouba scored a power play goal in the middle frame.

The worst was still to come for Vegas who lost Cody Glass to a nasty-looking head injury, and their woes were compounded when Jesper Fast scored the fourth goal of the game for the Blueshirts.

And the game was iced late in the third period when Mika Zibanejad recorded the Rangers’ second power play goal of the contest to wrap up a miserable night at the office for the Golden Knights.

Let’s delve into the game by breaking it down period-by-period…

The Game

First Period – The Vegas Golden Knights absolutely dominated the first nine minutes of the game, but they were coming up against a red hot goalie in Alexandar Georgiev who was simply unbeatable.

The Rangers backup stoned Reilly Smith twice and also Max Pacioretty in the opening minutes, and the Knights just couldn’t make their dominance count.

And they were made to pay at 11:03 when Artemi Panarin had plenty of open ice to walk into, before unleashing a wrister past Malcolm Subban.

And Subban was beaten seconds later when Chris Kreider sent a one-timer beyond Subban from the slot area after crashing the net to meet a cross-ice feed from Ryan Strome.

Georgiev then robbed Pacioretty with a sublime glove save, before Chandler Stephenson fanned on a breakaway to finish the period.

Second Period – Tomas Nosek pinged a shot against the crossbar as the Vegas Golden Knights continued to dominate, but also continued to fail to strike while the iron was hot.

And it only got worse after Ryan Reaves was sent to the box for four minutes for drawing blood from Brendan Lemieux with a high stick.

What happened next summed up Vegas’ night as the Rangers struck gold on their power play thanks to Jacob Trouba, who reacted quickest to mop up a rebound.

Trouba then turned provider as he sent an absolutely gorgeous dish to Jesper Fast, who one-timed the puck past Subban for the Blueshirts’ fourth goal of the game.

The night took another negative turn for the Knights as Cody Glass took an elbow in the head from Brendan Lemieux, and the rookie had to be helped off the ice by Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault.

Third Period – A man and four goals down, the Vegas Golden Knights were against the ropes and they received a knockout blow at 15:05 as Mika Zibanejad threw the puck to the front of the net and it bounced off the skate of Brayden McNabb and into the net.

And that was it as the New York Rangers got revenge for their heavy loss to the Knights the week before, while Vegas saw their five-game point streak snapped in emphatic fashion.

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