Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 | 2 a.m.
The “Credit One minute to go in the period” announcement at T-Mobile Arena felt almost like a death bell toll for the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday.
In the final 60 seconds of the first and second periods, the St. Louis Blues found the back of the net, sending the Golden Knights to the locker room with their backs against the wall.
While they reversed the trend in the third period, with Pavel Dorofeyev scoring in the final 30 seconds of regulation to force overtime, Vegas lost its fourth straight game in a shootout to the Blues, 5-4.
“We’re not as hard on the puck as we typically are when we’re on our game,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You’re going to go through (losing) stretches throughout the year, and we’re obviously going through it.”
The Golden Knights’ failure to keep opponents off the scoreboard in the final minute Monday wasn’t a new problem.
In Saturday’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, Vegas was scored on in the final 18 seconds of the first period and the final 62 seconds of the second period.
Going back to Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, while the Golden Knights didn’t give up a late goal, Victor Olofsson was called for too many men on the ice with 1:19 left in the game, negating a 6-on-5 opportunity.
Against the Blackhawks, Mark Stone was called for slashing with 61 seconds left in the game, again negating a 6-on-5 opportunity. On Monday, Alexander Holtz’s tripping penalty led to a late goal for the Blues in the second period.
“Surely, the goals in the last minute don’t help,” Brett Howden said. “Those are momentum killers, especially when they’ve been 1-1, 2-1 games and we give up a goal. It just puts us behind the eight ball even more the next period.”
Cassidy said the team’s struggles have been compounded with the lack of “big saves” at the end of periods. Ilya Samsonov was in the net for the Chicago loss, and Adin Hill against St. Louis. Both gave up multiple late-period goals.
“You need big saves to pick you up,” Cassidy said. It’s a game of mistake, and we’re not going to be clean every night. That’s where you need to be bailed out sometimes, and that’s the timing of it, too.”
One of the silver linings in this stretch, during which the Golden Knights have lost six of their last seven, has been the play of Tomas Hertl and Dorofeyev.
Hertl scored on the power play, his fourth goal in three games and his 10th point in six games. Dorofeyev had two points, and he now has 10 points and five goals in five games.
Brett Howden scored his 16th goal of the season, and Jack Eichel scored in the final three minutes of the game to cut the Blues’ lead to one.
“They’re (Hertl and Dorofeyev) on, and we need it, but we need some other guys that have been fighting it a bit to emerge soon,” Cassidy said.
A shootout loss also put the Golden Knights slightly ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for the lead in the Pacific Division with 62 points.
The Oilers had a chance to become the divisional leaders Saturday after the Golden Knights lost to the Blackhawks, but they lost in regulation to the Vancouver Canucks.
A loss in overtime also shows that the Golden Knights are getting closer to where they want to be — on the cusp of victory despite falling short. They rematch against the Blues on Thursday at 5 p.m. in St. Louis.
“We stayed, stayed with it, and we were able to get a point out a bit, but we’re in a little bit of a lull right now,” Brayden McNabb said. “Hopefully, we can build off that encouragement.”
