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The Vegas Golden Knights found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard Wednesday, Dec. 7 as the team lost, 5-1, to the New York Rangers at The Fortress. This was the first game back home for the Knights since Nov. 26 when they played the Vancouver Canucks.
“We were not a very mature team tonight,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Games like tonight on the road, we would’ve found ways to stay in it.”
New York used a four-goal third period to pull away from the Knights and cruise to their 13th win of the season. The Rangers are now 13-10-5 on the season with 31 points in the Metropolitan Division.
With the loss, Vegas now falls to 19-8-1 on the year with 39 points, still good for tops in the Pacific division. Overall, the team is third in the NHL.
The next time Vegas will be back on the ice is Friday, Dec. 9 as they get set to welcome in the Philadelphia Flyers as the Knights continue their home stand. Puck drop is set for 5:00 p.m.
Center Mika Zibanejad and left-wing Artemi Panarin each had three points in Wednesday’s contest for the Rangers. Zibanejad scored two goals and had an assist while Panarin had three assists.
One thing that has been noticeable this year with the Golden Knights is that the team is not taking nearly the high volume of shots they were accustomed to under previous head coach Pete DeBoer. Some nights, that has been beneficial for Vegas and other nights, it has proven to hurt the team. While the Knights finished the game with 26 shots on goal, at nearly the halfway point of the game (26 minutes in to be exact), the Knights only had six SOG.
Center Jonathan Marchessault was the lone goal scorer for the Golden Knights in this one when he scored on the power play with 6:22 to go in the second period. This is also the first time in Marchessault’s career that he has scored goals in three straight games.
“Just a lack of commitment to defend well,” Marchessault said about the biggest difference in the second and third period.
New York scored on two of the five power play chances they had. Vegas has had their struggles on both the power play and the penalty kill.
Wednesday’s game was a win and a loss for the Vegas special team’s units. The win part of this game is the fact that the power play scored and has been scoring consistently over the past few games.
The downside to the special teams must be the penalty kill. Coming into the game tonight, Vegas was bottom third of the league in penalty kill percentage. Giving up two goals on five power play opportunities.
Four different Rangers found the scoreboard tonight in the win for New York.