Vegas Golden Knights lose heartbreaker to the Tampa Bay Lightning

The Golden Knights thought they would add two points as they held onto a 3-2 in the last period. But they allowed two unanswered goals in the last 2:22 to bow to the Lightning 4-3.

Brandon Hagel tied the game at three and gave the Lightning the opening they needed to take it to overtime. That didn't happen.

One Nikita Kucherov was the hero, as he threw a shot towards the net from the left corner, and it deflected off of the Golden Knights Nicolas Hague and got by Adin Hill to win the game.

Talk about Heartbreak Hotel. The Vegas club witnessed a sure victory that turned into their second straight defeat on the road trip. Kucherov tallied two goals to help keep the Lightning undefeated this new season.

His shot/pass from the corner was a desperate attempt to make something happen. Like they say, you can't score if you don't shoot, and Kucherov proved that.

Playing on the road has been tough so far for Vegas

The Golden Knights wanted to even their road record. They lost to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. You may play conservatively when you're on the road, and taking on a former Stanley Cup-winning team down to a little over two minutes to play seems enough. It wasn't.

To illustrate that theory, the Golden Knights did not take a shot in the last period for 13 minutes! You can't curl into a ball in the corner of the ice and expect a win to be earned. Without any offensive force to at least keep the Lightning distracted from their scoring motivation, you are just digging a hole to bury yourself.

It can be a lesson learned for future reference.

Taking on the Florida Panthers next will be no easy task

It will be challenging to get past the Panthers, but they will be without the services of their star player, Matthew Tkachuk, who is injured and due to return on Oct. 22nd. The Golden Knights may have a shot since Aleksander Barkov is also out for two weeks due to an injury.

Adin Hill did his best to keep the Golden Knights in the game

Hill stopped Kucherov (yes, he isn't unstoppable) with two consecutive spectacular saves with less than seven minutes left in the second period. You would think that would get your team pumped up going forward. And, most of the time, that happens. It wasn't enough this time around.

Captain Mark Stone made an accurate comment in the post-game interview assessing what must be done to close the game when you have the lead, especially on the road. He mentioned it would be best to find ways to bear down and not let them score again.

That didn't happen in this contest, but the Vegas club will get another shot at taking a road victory on Saturday. The team is now 3-2 and must find a way to start winning on the road. They played exceptionally well at home but must improve their skills away from home.