Not much went wrong in the Vegas Golden Knights' 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
They got 37 shots on net, gave up just 17 shots and scored its second straight, 6-on-5 goal to force overtime. However, Vegas left Pittsburgh with just one point.
Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry, who was placed on waivers in January and reassigned to the American Hockey League, made 35 saves in his best performance since early December.
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy compared it to the team's 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders earlier this season. He believed they played well but just ran into a hot goalie.
"The guys played well today for the most part," Cassidy said. "It was a sluggish start, but it wasn't like we got bombed. We weren't caved in in the first period. We had plenty of opportunities to score and defended really well."
For a second straight game, Vegas fell into a hole and made a run at a come back. Two goals from Sidney Crosby in the first 23 minutes of the game had the Golden Knights down, but unlike the loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, the Golden Knights weren't constantly chasing the lead.
Vegas limited odd-man rushes and didn't allow Pittsburgh to generate many high-danger scoring chances. In the entire game, the Penguins had only six high-danger scoring chances.
"It's more difficult to chase the game, and I think both in games. Honestly, we've chased it well, if that makes any sense," Cassidy said. "We were as rock solid defensively as we've been all year."
The Golden Knights capitalized on their only power play of the game in the third period when Phillip Tomasino was called for tripping. Pavel Dorofeyev one-timed a shot into the net for his 25th goal of the season.
On the goal, Jack Eichel recorded his 78th point of the season and is now tied with William Karlsson for the franchise record for most points in a season. Eichel is projected to score 100 points this year with 18 games left.
Cassidy says Eichel has done just about everything this season, which is impressive.
"He (Eichel) dominates offensively, can score, makes plays, runs the power plays and is on our top penalty-killing unit," Cassidy said. "He's out on 6-on-5s, and he's out on 5-on-6s. He does everything for us."
In the dying seconds of the game, with Ilya Samsonov pulled for an extra attacker, Noah Hanifin scored on a long wrist shot with six seconds left to tie the game.
"We did a pretty good job of just sticking with it, and obviously, we needed until the very last few seconds there to get one," Hanifin said. "But it's tough not getting the two points. It's still good to come up with one (goal) that late in the game."
With the Golden Knights picking up a point and Edmonton losing Monday, Vegas has surprisingly extended its first-place lead in the Pacific Division to five points.
Facing Columbus and Detroit in this four-game road trip, two teams that are trying to make a push to get into the playoffs, any points coming out of these games are going to be crucial for the Golden Knights heading into the final stretch of the season.
"We'll take the point because when you get up with your goalie out that late, you probably deserve a better fate in the end," Cassidy said. "We'll take it. Move on and get ready for Columbus."
