Poor puck luck costs the Golden Knights in series-evening loss to Mammoth

Well, as they often say, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Yours truly never expected this to be a sweep, let alone an easy series overall, and that proved correct on Tuesday night. For much of the night, Utah out-matched and out-muscled Vegas, dominating the second period in shots, zone time, and so on. However, Vegas kept even by clutch plays and sheer luck, only to have horrific puck luck cost them multiple times throughout the night. As the series heads to Utah for the next leg, let's take a look at the misfortunes the Golden Knights suffered last night.

The bounces were not in our favor, to disastrous effect

One would've thought that, after Mark Stone's game-opening goal off Mikhail Sergachev, the weird bounces and own-goals might go our way for once. Unfortunately, this would prove to be the exception, as needless to say, they did not. By the way, shoutout to the captain, who's now extended the franchise playoff goals record he broke last game.

First off was Utah's initial goal of the game; this one was a doozy. Utah's Mackenzie Weegar flung a prayer of a shot at Vegas' net at roughly the 17-minute mark of the 1st, which was subsequently deflected by Noah Hanifin. Though Carter Hart was able to make the initial save on the friendly-fire tip, a poorly-placed Rasmus Andersson almost immediately accidentally kicked the puck in, resulting in a VGK own-goal for the second straight game.

Perhaps it was a mental lapse for Andersson, given he and Weegar were teammates in Calgary only three months ago (joking). Two periods later, with the score tied, Vegas let Dylan Guenther close in on the net. Though his initial shot was stopped and the first rebound bounced off the post, the second one went straight onto the stick of a similarly-breaking Logan Cooley, who knocked it in for Utah's game-winning goal.

It was an uncharacteristic flub for a so-far strong Carter Hart, who seemingly either lost track of the puck, didn't track Cooley at all, or both. Either way, the luck bounces for the Mammoth contributed two of their three goals, including the winner, and ultimately sunk Vegas. Here's to hoping that luck doesn't continue.

Ivan Barbashev continues to be a different beast in the playoffs

Following a hit-laden game 1 capped off by an empty-net goal, Barbie showed up yet again in this one. With Vegas desperately in need of momentum after going down 2-1 in the second period (off Utah's only non-lucky goal), Barbie did it all himself, cutting through multiple Utah defenders for an absolute beauty of a backhander:

That marks two goals in two games for Barbashev, who also added another four hits for a total of 12 through two games. Not bad at all, and there's a reason Torts put him back on the first line.

Anyways, it's now a two-day break before the boys are back at it in Salt Lake City on Friday. Here's to taking back home-ice.

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