The Vegas Golden Knights lost their second game in a row for the first time in over a month with their 6-5 loss on Wednesday night when they visited the Anaheim Ducks.
Vegas started their season with an unusually rocky start. After winning their season opener against the Seattle Kraken, the Golden Knights lost their next four games in a row.
To Vegas’ credit, they were dealing with a massive amount of injuries to many of their top players, including team captain Mark Stone.
However, since that string of four consecutive losses, the Knights have been able to avoid losing back-to-back games — until Wednesday night.
Vegas lost on Saturday 3-2 when the Edmonton Oilers came to town. After falling behind 3-0 in the early stages of the second period, the Golden Knights had to fight their way back into the game.
With one goal midway through the second period, and one goal in the early minutes of the third period, the Knights looked like they were on the verge of making the comeback. Unfortunately, the Oilers were able to keep the Knights from scoring another goal for the remainder of the game.
On Wednesday, the Knights started their two-game road trip with a game against the Ducks.
Anaheim came into the game with a 8-4-1 home record and the Golden Knights were 5-4-0 on the road this season.
Neither team was able to find the scoreboard in the first period, but that changed in a huge way when the second period came around. Both teams exploded for a combined six goals just in the second period as the Ducks were able to jump out to a 4-2 lead before heading into the third period.
Forwards Sonny Milano and Trevor Zegras each had two assists in the second period and were on their way to each having three assists for the game.
Reilly Smith increased his team-leading goal total for the Golden Knights. He now has 10 goals through the team’s 22 games this season. Smith is currently on pace to break his career-high in goals of 27, which he set with Vegas during the shortened 2019-20 season.
Team leader Max Pacioretty played in just his fifth game of the season on Wednesday. He was injured during the team’s second game of the season against the LA Kings in October and was out until the game last Wednesday against Nashville. With his one goal and one assist against the Ducks, Pacioretty now has a total of seven points on the season in five games.
With the teams alternating goals in the third period, Vegas wasn’t able to quite complete the comeback attempt. They fell just short after cutting the Ducks’ lead down to just one with a goal in the final 30 seconds of the game.
The Golden Knights’ next game will be tonight, Friday, Dec. 3, when they travel to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes. The Coyotes are currently sitting in last place of the Western Conference with a record of 5-16-2, good for just 12 points on the season.
Puck-drop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.