Carolina offense too much for Vegas, lose first home game of season

The Vegas Golden Knights were not able to keep up with the offense of the Carolina Hurricanes and suffered their first loss at home this season on Veterans Day.

VGK lost to the Hurricanes, 5-2, on Monday, Nov. 11 at the T-Mobile Arena. The loss dropped their record to 9-4-2 and ended their franchise record best home winning streak at eight games. They also remain one point back of the Los Angeles Kings for first place in the Pacific Division.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get the players to buy in exactly how they’re going to be in your face all night until you’re in the soup,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Then we got going halfway into the game, but it’s too late then […] I just didn’t do a good enough job of preparing the team of what was coming.”

The Golden Knights will now hit the road for the first of a two-game road trip, starting Wednesday, Nov. 13 against the Anaheim Ducks. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the Honda Center.

“It’s one of those games we actually have to learn from and understand why things went wrong and move forward,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “Then when you encounter those games again, you’re better for it.”

Heading into Monday night’s game, Vegas and Carolina both bolstered high-scoring offenses and averaged over four goals per game. According to the sportsbooks, the over-under on goals was set at 6.5, in a game that ultimately saw seven goals.

The Knights led the NHL for most goals scored in the first period, but came out flat Monday and only mustered four shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes.

“Some of our veteran guys didn’t have their A-game in terms of transition and execution,” Cassidy said. “They could’ve been better and would’ve needed to be better tonight, but I think it was a team loss.”

While the Golden Knights couldn’t find the net, the Canes got their offense rolling right away to start the game. Goalie Adin Hill gave up the first goal of the night just over five minutes into the game.

“I didn’t think [Hill] played poorly,” Cassidy said. “He’ll get back in there, he’s been playing better. He’s our guy.”

By the end of the first period, the Hurricanes shot 16 shots on goal to the home team’s four. Vegas’ lack of offense and struggle to slow down Carolina set the tone for the rest of the game with them trailing by two heading into the first intermission.

“They stuck to the way they play and what they know works,” Whitecloud said. “They executed and obviously we didn’t. We dug ourselves in a hole early.”

Just over seven minutes into the second period, Hill gave up two more goals. The 17,908 people at The Fortress appeared stunned to see the VGK trailing by four.

“In our group, there’s never one guy that’s responsible,” Whitecloud said. “[Hill] deserved better tonight. He deserved better from us.”

Cassidy decided to sub out Hill for backup Akira Schmid, who made his team debut after spending the past three seasons with the New Jersey Devils.

It was a tough night for Hill as he had to face 21 shots in his 26 minutes of action. Going back to their previous game, Hill had now given up eight goals in the past 86 minutes. He finished Monday night with 17 saves for a .810 save percentage.

“Hill will go back to work tomorrow,” Cassidy said. “He’ll put it behind him and move on to his next start, which could be as soon as Wednesday.”

The reason for Schmid coming into the game was because the Golden Knights were without goaltender Ilya Samsonov due to injury. Captain Mark Stone and defenseman Ben Hutton were also scratched from the lineup.

Fellow defenseman Brayden McNabb suffered a minor leg injury that took him out of the game in the first period, but he returned just four minutes later.

Despite Schmid holding it down between the pipes the rest of the way, Vegas was still held scoreless going into the second intermission. He finished his VGK debut with a perfect 12 saves on 12 shots performance.

“I thought [Schmid] played very well for us,” Cassidy said. “It was more about changing the momentum and I thought Schmid did a really good job for us.”

Center Jack Eichel lit the lamp to get the Knights on the board at the 13:49 mark of the third period.

With less than six minutes left in the game, Cassidy decided to go to the empty net but the Canes took advantage and scored just 15 seconds later to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

Center Ivan Barbashev scored a power play goal with 12 seconds left off assists from Eichel and Alexander Holtz, and made the final score 5-2.

Eichel finished the night with two points to add to his season total of 24.

Barbashev’s goal increased his season total to eight.

Holtz now has six assists on the season.

Despite the rough night, the Golden Knights were able to go a perfect 4-4 on power play kills, while also going 1-3 on their own power play opportunities.