Golden Knights blanked by Islanders in 4-0 loss

The Vegas Golden Knights were shut out for the third time this season when they suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the New York Islanders Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena.

The loss snapped Vegas’ three-game winning streak and was the club’s first loss in 2025. It marked just the fifth time in 22 games that the Golden Knights have lost at home this year.

Vegas moves to 28-10-3 on the year and remains in first place in the NHL with 59 points at the halfway point of the season. The Golden Knights lead the Jets by one point with one game in hand.

It appeared as though the Golden Knights were on the board with a power-play tally in the first period, but Tomas Hertl’s goal was called back after a successful offside challenge by the Islanders.

That was the closest Vegas came to officially lighting the lamp.

Instead, it was the Islanders who not only opened the scoring but also accounted for every goal of the game.

Following a brutal turnover in the defensive zone, Anders Lee made the Golden Knights pay when his five-hole bid got through Adin Hill. The goal, which proved to be the game-winner, came in the final three minutes of the first.

The second period was a sloppy 20 minutes for the Golden Knights, who mismanaged the puck, failed to get to the high-danger areas and found themselves chasing — both on the scoreboard and around the ice.

Despite outshooting the Islanders 11-6, Vegas gave up two goals on six shots to fall into a 3-0 hole.

First, a turnover at the blue line set the Islanders up in transition, and Brock Nelson finished off a great shift by Mathew Barzal 5:40 into the middle frame.

Then, Bo Horvat further extended the Islanders’ lead just over five minutes later. Again, the Islanders took advantage of a Vegas turnover on a failed clear before putting the puck in the back of the net.

The Golden Knights trailed 3-0 going into a critical third period.

For the third period in a row, the Golden Knights outshot the visitors (8-6 in the first, 11-6 in the second, 11-9 in the third). But for the third period in a row, the Islanders outscored Vegas.

The Golden Knights pulled Hill with nearly four minutes to go. With the extra man, the Golden Knights had sustained pressure in the offensive zone and finally generated some good looks. In the end, however, they couldn’t solve Ilya Sorokin. Casey Cizikas then put the game away with an empty-net goal to make it 4-0 with 2:34 remaining.

The Golden Knights are now 6-5-2 all-time against the Islanders.

Turnovers proved costly for the Golden Knights, who never fully recovered from the momentum swing following the overturned goal. Vegas failed to be a threat offensively after the first half of the first period, and the Golden Knights were unable to get to the middle of the ice.

In fact, Vegas generated just one high-danger chance at 5-on-5 in the second and third periods combined. At all strengths (i.e., including the 6-on-5 stretch with Hill on the bench), the Golden Knights managed just two total in the final 40 minutes.

Needless to say, it’s difficult to overcome a multi-goal deficit when you average one high-danger chance per period.

The lone exception to Vegas’ ineffective and sluggish offense was Jack Eichel, who did everything in his power to put the team on his back. He led the Golden Knights with five individual scoring chances, and he accounted for four out of eight of Vegas’ high-danger chances in the game. Vegas’ only high-danger chance in the second period came off Eichel’s stick when he weaved his way through the entire Islanders defense and got a chance in tight, which Sorokin denied.

Hill finished the game with 17 saves on 20 shots for an .850 save percentage. However, it was a largely sloppy effort by the Golden Knights against a team that punished Vegas for its mistakes.

The Golden Knights will look to rebound when they take on the New York Rangers Saturday night in Sin City.