Vegas Golden Knights open road trip with another loss in Buffalo
It wasn’t a successful start to the road trip for the Vegas Golden Knights who dropped a 4-2 decision to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday night.
In what was the first game of an eight-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights drew first blood but they couldn’t build on that on their way to losing a fourth straight game.
Having allowed the first goal in the first period in each of their last six games, Head Coach Gerard Gallant would have been looking for a better effort from his players in the opening 20-minutes of the game.
Well, Vegas didn’t allow a goal in the first period but they were outshot 13-4 as the Buffalo Sabres peppered Marc-Andre Fleury with a plethora of shots.
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Former Golden Knights defenseman Colin Miller should have got the Sabres on the board when presented with a wide-open net on the backdoor, but he couldn’t convert his one-timer.
Fleury made a couple of big stops to ensure it was a tied game heading into the second period, with Buffalo the dominant team in most areas.
And, bucking a recent trend, it was Vegas who landed the first blow of the game at 1:55 in the middle frame as Chandler Stephenson‘s centering pass bounced off Tomas Nosek‘s skate and into the net.
It was the first time this Decade that the Golden Knights had scored the first goal of the game, which is just incredible.
However, it didn’t last long as after Max Pacioretty went to the box for two minutes for a questionable interference call, leading to the Sabres going on the power play which had gone 4-for-11 (36.4%) in their last four games.
You could have predicted it because the man advantage did indeed stay hot as William Karlsson was stripped off the puck in his own zone leading to Kyle Okposo ripping a wrister beyond Fleury.
And, with seconds left in the period and moments after Stephenson had missed a wide-open net, the Sabres went 2-for-2 on the power play after a game of tic-tac-toe resulted in Sam Reinhart snapping a wrister past Fleury.
Vegas was gifted with a four-minute power play to start the third period after Miller got two for tripping and two for unsportsmanlike conduct.
It was a gift well received too as Reilly Smith continued his golden touch in-front of net with a heavy wrister after receiving the puck from Shea Theodore.
But, as was the case in the second period, the Sabres came back fighting and a piece of magic proved to be the go-ahead goal.
Jack Eichel received the puck in his own zone before charging down the ice, dangling his way past Theodore and then beating Fleury with a filthy move.
And the game was iced in the final seconds thanks to Curtis Lazar, who controlled a puck in his own end before backhanding it into the empty net.
It was a tough loss for the Vegas Golden Knights, especially when you consider that both the Arizona Coyotes and the Edmonton Oilers also won.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…