Bedard, Blackhawks pick up overtime victory over Golden Knights.
The Vegas Golden Knights suffered their first defeat of the season with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
William Karlsson and Shea Theodore scored and has an assist. Pavel Dorofeyev also scored. Adin Hill made 20 saves.
Connor Bedard scored his third goal of the season, becoming the youngest player to score in his first two games against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
“We mismanaged pucks all night,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We didn’t execute at an NHL level for most of the night and it ended up catching up to us. It happens sometimes and tonight was one of those afternoons.”
Here are the three takeaways:
Fast start, stumbled late
The Golden Knights started fast scoring two goals in the first four minutes.
It progressively got worse from there as over the next 10 minutes, the Blackhawks found their game and managed to tie the game before taking the lead in early in the third period.
Vegas, as Cassidy said, failed to manage the puck with 14 giveaways.
“Good start, then they get a goal and momentum. It’s hockey,” Karlsson said. “That’s how it goes somen times and they responded well.”
The Golden Knights were already showing signs of playing poorly as it did in stretches against the Philadelphia Flyers. It required a late goal for the Golden Knights to extend the win streak to seven.
Entry Issues
The Golden Knights power play struggled getting into the offensive zone. Cassidy said it was the area that most glaring in terms of not performing at an NHL level.
Vegas went 0-for-4 on the man advantage and couldn’t seem to generate consistent offense on the power play.
“They did a good job at interrupting the break outs,” Karlsson said. “We could have been better in that aspect.”
Opportunity for bounce back
The Golden Knights travel to Los Angeles, forcing them to have a short memory and turn their attention to fixing the game quickly.
Vegas is known for forgetting bad games and rarely lose two in a row.
Cassidy credits to the Golden Knights being a mature team and understanding the long grind of the regular season.
“It's one of 82,” he said. “Let's not repeat it. It’s a division rival. We haven't seen a lot of those this year. So that should get our attention right away. Most times when you don't have your best most good teams want to remedy in a hurry. They have pride.”n
