Despite their best efforts the Vegas Golden Knights were unable to dig themselves out of a three-goal hole after dropping a 4-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
It was a mouthwatering clash of two titans at T-Mobile Arena and the Vegas Golden Knights dominated large chunks of the game, although they were made to pay for a sluggish start.
Nate Schmidt‘s errant pass was picked off in the neutral zone and Evgeni Malkin backhanded the rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury after Vegas failed to clear the zone.
Patric Hornqvist then took advantage of another rebound as the Penguins scored right off the draw, with the Golden Knights suffering a case of deja vu after also putting up a stinker in the first period against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
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It only got worse for the Knights, too, as Dominik Kahun made it a three-goal game early in the second, with the forward converting on the power play.
Credit where credit is due, though, because the Knights, as they did against St. Louis, refused to cave in and they fought their way back into the contest.
And the fightback started thanks to Max Pacioretty who continued his stellar year by wristing a shot beyond Tristan Jarry.
It was then a one-goal game thanks to Paul Stastny who positioned himself well to redirect a shot from Shea Theodore past Jarry on the power play.
However, any comeback came to a grinding halt after Brandon Tanev collected a pinpoint stretch pass from Kris Letang, before crashing to the front of the net, swinging the puck around the pokecheck of Fleury before putting the puck in the net.
Reilly Smith did dispatch a nifty pass from Chandler Stephenson past Jarry, but it was too little too late as the Pittsburgh Penguins ended the Golden Knights’ four-game win streak.
Let’s delve into some takeaways from the Vegas Golden Knights’ 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins…