VGK’s slow start is too much to overcome in Game 2 loss to the Minnesota

The Vegas Golden Knights suffered an embarrassing beatdown in front of their home crowd and lost Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series against the Minnesota Wild.

The Golden Knights were defeated by the Wild, 5-2, Tuesday, April 22, from the T-Mobile Arena.

“We didn’t take care of the puck,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Typically, when things don’t go well for us, that’s where it starts. You’re giving their best players easy offense in the playoffs. It’s a bad formula.”

Tuesday night’s game was the first time the Wild beat the Knights all season, after VGK swept the season series in the regular season and got the win in Game 1 of the series.

After suffering the loss, the best-of-seven series is now tied 1-1.

The Golden Knights will now try to bounce back on the road against Minnesota in Game 3 on Thursday, April 24. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center.

“I think we gave ourselves an opportunity to get back in the game, but when you’re down that much, it’s hard,” Cassidy said. “I think we kept playing hard, we just couldn’t finish.”

Vegas found themselves in a big hole, being down 3-0 at the end of the first period.

Less than five minutes into the second period, another Knights turnover led to another goal for the Wild.

“You get in a series and there’s going to be pushes and surges either way,” Wild head coach John Hynes said. “I think from a competitive level, we were where we needed to be. But the big part is poise under pressure and playing smart, understanding how to manage those certain things. I think we did a fairly good job of that tonight.”

It was a rough outing for recently extended Adin Hill, who was tasked with starting at goalie for VGK for the second-straight game. He didn’t get too much help from his teammates, who had 15 total giveaways that led to most of Minnesota’s goals.

Hill and the Golden Knights kind of turned it around in the second half of the game, but any chance of a comeback came to an end when they gave up the Wild’s final goal while leaving an empty net.

By the final buzzer, Hill wrapped up the game with 12 saves on 16 shots on goal for a .750 save percentage. He is now 1-1-0 when being on the ice in this postseason.

The 18,311 people in attendance at The Fortress witnessed Vegas’ first regulation loss since April 3 against the Winnipeg Jets.

“If you want to go far in the playoffs, it’s not going to be quick,” Knights forward Reilly Smith said. “It’s not going to be easy.”

Despite VGK taking the first shots on goal of the game, they couldn’t find their footing and weren’t able to get on the board until the 7:56 mark of the second period.

Defenseman Noah Hanifin scored the Golden Knights’ first goal on an unassisted play. Hanifin’s goal to get Vegas on the board was his first of this postseason.

“It’s a learning curve for us, we can just learn from that game and move on,” Hanifin said. “We just got to learn from the mistakes and take away some of the positives in the second half.”

The Knights’ next goal came at the 17:34 mark of the third period, when center Tomas Hertl found the back of the net with help from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and left-wing Brandon Saad.

Hertl’s goal increased his total to two during these playoffs. Pietrangelo and Saad’s assists on the goal were both of their second assists during this series.

VGK had to climb out of their four goal deficit and put a valiant effort by outshooting Minnesota 22-5 on shots on goal.

The Golden Knights became the more aggressive and dominant team in the back half of the game before the Wild’s last empty net goal.

“[Vegas] is a good team,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. “We’ve got to look to Game 3, and we know we’ll be tested throughout the series.”

The final five minutes of the game also saw numerous scrums between the teams, but the referees managed to not give out any penalties.

The rest of the series will likely get testy as it shifts to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4.

Vegas finished the game with more shots on goal and faceoffs won than the Wild, but their giveaways were too much to overcome as they ran out of time in their comeback attempt.