Golden Knights Give Up Short-Handed, Soft Goals To Tampa Bay, Drop 5-3 Decision Before Announced 17,789 Tuesday
Support our advertisers. Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection west of the Strip.
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
Two talented teams with recent Stanley Cup championships on their resumes — the Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning — faced off at the Big Ice House by the Strip tonight as both try and snare a playoff spot for the upcoming postseason.
Just the facts: Tampa Bay Lightning 5 Vegas Golden Knights 3
Story line: Lack of VGK power play haunting Knights as Vegas gave up a short-handed goal with a 1-0 lead in the first period. It was deflating.
VGK goal scorers: Jonathan Marchessault finished off a nice passing sequence off gorgeous tick-tack-toe passes from defenseman Shea Theodore and center Jack Eichel to give Vegas an early 1-0 lead on his team-leading 38th goal. Tampa Bay countered with a short-handed 2-on-0 goal by Anthony Cirelli and then Anthony DuClair scored a second goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead after one period.
Late in the second period, fourth line center Brett Howden scored his sixth to tie the game at two apiece.
In the third, defenseman Ben Hutton scored his second goal of the season to tie the game at three after the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov slipped a pass to Brayden Point on the power play for Tampa Bay’s third goal earlier in the period. The Kooch added an empty-netter.
Attendance: 17,789
VGK record: 36-25-7 for 79 points, eighth in the Western Conference, three points ahead of Minnesota Wild.
VGK coach Bruce Cassidy takeaways: Overall, team played well but goalie Adin Hill needs to make “timely saves” and power play needs to improve. As far as inconsistent season, Cassidy said injuries to Mark Stone, William Karlsson, Shea Theodore, Hill meant a lot of changing chemistry.
VGK next game: Thursday home against Seattle Kraken, 7:30PM start.
