Fixing the Vegas Golden Knights' Third-Period Woes
The Vegas Golden Knights have this habit where they're either tied or are clinging onto a lead. Heading into the third period, everything's fine and dandy. That is, until...
Their opponent scores a goal. Then...
Their opponent gets another. Then...
Their opponent establishes a full momentum swing. This pattern has gone on for the past couple of weeks, making life miserable for the Vegas Golden Knights. It's caused teams like the Minnesota Wild to crawl back into the playoff race, hurting the Golden Knights.
In fact, the Golden Knights have allowed 16 third-period goals in the past six games. Such collapses have caused Vegas to miss out on valuable points, hurting themselves in the Western Conference playoff race. Take Calgary's 4-1 victory over the Golden Knights on Thursday as an example. The Calgary Flames were down, 1-0, in the second period before responding with four unanswered goals in the third period.
With teams like the Wild inching closer to the Golden Knights, what are the three things Vegas must change? How can the Golden Knights address this issue before matters get... too wild?