Mistakes cost Golden Knights in 4-3 shootout loss to Sabres

The Vegas Golden Knights were seconds away from leaving upstate New York with two points and their 40th win of the season. It had been a disjointed effort, but the win was there for the taking.

Instead, the Golden Knights failed to seal the win, squandered the lead by giving up a goal with 13.6 seconds in regulation and then fell in a shootout to the Buffalo Sabres Saturday afternoon at KeyBank center.

By no means did the Golden Knights have a strong game, but they did enough to claim victory. However, a series of mistakes proved costly throughout, none greater than Tomas Hertl’s unselfish yet ill-advised decision to pass up an empty-net goal, which ultimately cost Vegas the extra point in the 4-3 decision.

This game had a little of everything, including multiple lead changes, several fights and plenty of narrative. But it’s one that will leave a sour taste for the Golden Knights, who move to 39-19-8 on the year and 1-0-2 through three games of this four-game road trip.

The Golden Knights got off to a slow start, leading Bruce Cassidy to shuffle the lines early, leaving only the Hertl, Pavel Dorofeyev and Brandon Saad unit untouched. The moves paid off quickly, as Brett Howden scored on the backdoor to give Vegas a 1-0 lead at 12:07, with new linemates Tanner Pearson and Ivan Barbashev both assisting on the play.

It was the only goal of the frame.

The second period was a lot more lively, with two fights and two goals.

After a clean hit resulted in an unfortunate injury for Sabres forward Jiri Kulich, former Golden Knights forward Peyton Krebs stepped up for his teammate in a bout with Howden. There was head contact on the play, but Kulich put his head down late, lowered his body and turned in towards the hit after Howden was already en route.

Not long after, Keegan Kolesar and Jordan Greenway dropped the gloves, and Kolesar used the opportunity to try to rally the bench.

Nineteen seconds later, the Golden Knights responded.

Hertl made an excellent play to strip Rasmus Dahlin of the puck just inside the Buffalo blue line. The initial shot was blocked, but Dorofeyev followed up on the rebound to double Vegas’ lead at 12:07, almost exactly one period after Howden’s tally. (Ironically, Vegas scored at 12:00 of the first period and 12:17 of the second period Thursday night against Columbus.)

Scoring for the third game in a row for the first time in his career, Dorofeyev drew even with Hertl for the team lead in goals with his 27th of the season.

But the Sabres instantly negated the momentum boost and brought the deficit back down to one, as Ryan McLeod beat Adin Hill five-hole just seven seconds later. It was a rough goal for Hill to surrender, particularly given the timing.

Through two periods, Vegas had just 13 shots and trailed 40-29 in shot attempts. Considering Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has allowed more goals than any goalie in the NHL, the Golden Knights hadn’t tested him nearly enough, though the two teams had comparable scoring chances (16-15 in Buffalo’s favor) and high-danger chances (4-4). But despite not yet finding their game, the Golden Knights carried a 2-1 lead into the third.

Vegas continued its recent trend of coming out with a strong defensive effort in the third period, limiting Buffalo to one shot through the first 7:27.

But an overzealous forecheck by Dorofeyev led to Buffalo’s first power-play of the game midway through the third, and a Vegas mistake ended up in the back of the net. Alex Pietrangelo had time but sent a soft clearing attempt up the middle of the ice, turning it over from behind the net to set up the equalizer by Vegas native Jason Zucker.

The Sabres carried the momentum after the goal, pressuring Hill late in the third. With roughly six minutes left, Buffalo had an excellent chance to take the lead, but Hill shut down a tip shot and made several stops to keep the game tied.

It took more than 12 minutes for the Golden Knights to register a shot on goal in the third period, and with less than five minutes on the clock, Vegas had just 17 in the game.

Kolesar almost made it happen by himself after gloving the puck down at the blue line and winning a race, but his five-hole bid was turned aside. It was Vegas’ second shot of the period, and it came with 3:18 remaining in regulation.

But Vegas made the most of its next one.

It was Jack Eichel, the former Sabres captain himself, who scored the go-ahead goal with 2:33 remaining. It was clear from the beginning of his shift that Eichel was on a mission, and an excellent all-around shift was rewarded with a loose puck in the crease, which Eichel pushed into the empty cage.

The turning point of the game came with roughly 45 seconds left in the third.

The Golden Knights had a chance to ice the game, but a poor decision by Hertl to attempt to pass to Eichel rather than hit the empty net prevented Vegas from doing so.

Buffalo then called timeout with 28 seconds on the clock. On the ensuing shift, the current Sabres captain answered, as Dahlin scored on a blast from the point with just 13.6 seconds left to reset the score once more.

Eichel had a step on a Buffalo defender in overtime but was unable to sneak the puck around the outstretched pad of Luukkonen. He seemed determined to end it in a whistle-less extra frame, but neither team was able to strike, sending the game to a shootout.

In his return to Buffalo, former Sabres forward Victor Olofsson scored for Vegas in the first round, while Luukkonen’s patience thwarted Eichel in the second. Tage Thompson hit the post, but a slick backhand by Jack Quinn evened things up at 1-1. In a game rife with narrative, former Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch scored the game-winner for Buffalo in the third round, and Luukkonen closed the door on Dorofeyev to make it official.

On the one hand, Vegas did not play well. The Sabres outshot the Golden Knights 37-19, and Vegas never got to its game. Coming away with a point in that scenario is not the worst result.

On the other hand, the Golden Knights had a chance to close out a win and blew it. Good teams find ways to win, and the Golden Knights set themselves up to walk away with two points. But Hertl’s blunder kept the Sabres in the game; from there, Buffalo did everything right. The Sabres got the puck on net for the whistle, called timeout, won the faceoff and then scored. Buffalo deserves some credit for that.

But Vegas made too many glaring mistakes to justify throwing away the extra point. The way in which it happened makes it that much worse.

The Hill goal seven seconds after Dorofeyev gave Vegas a 2-0 lead, Dorofeyev’s penalty in the offensive zone that set up the Buffalo power play, Pietrangelo’s turnover on said power play that led directly to Zucker’s goal and especially Hertl’s misguided call to give Eichel the puck.

In a game in which Vegas never trailed, the Golden Knights certainly didn’t do themselves any favors.

A visibly frustrated Cassidy was critical of his team’s sloppy performance. When asked about the Hertl play, Cassidy didn’t mince words.

“I’d like to see him shoot the puck in the net and end the game, that’s what I’d like to see. I think the whole team would like to see that.”

He attributed the loss to a “total lack of respect. Probably most of the night, but the way it ended probably sums that up.”

Cassidy said there were some small pockets of decent play, such as the strong checking early in the third period, but that the Golden Knights “weren’t very good most of the day.”

He said Vegas didn’t wear down Buffalo’s defense nearly enough but that the team did some things right to have been up late in the game.

However, he pointed to mistakes from throughout the game, including both of Vegas’ penalties.

The first was an unnecessary delay of game call on Hill for shooting the puck over the glass. Hill gave up three goals on 37 shots for a .919 save percentage. It wasn’t a flawless showing in his first game following the announcement of a massive six-year extension, as he failed to come up with a timely save on McLeod’s soft goal. Even so, this one was not on him. He did more than enough to help his team win and was seconds away from his 25th win of the year before things unraveled.

The second penalty was Dorofeyev’s offensive-zone infraction, which led to the Zucker goal. Cassidy mentioned that it was the third game in a row in which Dorofeyev has taken such a penalty. However, Dorofeyev took a double-minor in the neutral zone against Columbus, while Olofsson and Hertl committed high-sticking offenses in the offensive zone against Pittsburgh.

“Those are things you’ve got to get out of your game,” Cassidy said. “They’re going to happen periodically, but they’re going to cost you, and they have. They have on this trip.”

The Golden Knights were not sharp, did not deliver a 60-minute effort and did not do nearly enough to test a struggling netminder, as they were held to under 20 shots in 65 minutes against one of the worst teams in the league. In spite of everything, this was a game Vegas should have won.

The Golden Knights have been inconsistent and have not looked like a true contender in recent games. They will have a chance to respond tomorrow with another early game in Detroit.