LAS VEGAS — After opening a five-game homestand with four straight wins, the Golden Knights dropped the final game against their pesky rivals from Los Angeles, as the Kings held off a late rally to win 6-5 on Sunday night.
The loss threw shade on Tomas Hertl’s three goals, as he registered the seventh hat trick of his career and first since Dec. 5, 2023.
Nic Roy and Brandon Saad also scored for the Knights, while Adin Hill made 29 saves.
The last loss for Vegas also came against the Kings, in Los Angeles on Feb. 24.
Vegas heads into a four-game road trip and goes into the week with a four-point lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division (82-78), both with 19 games left on the schedule.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s loss:
HOT HERTL: Hertl has been torching opponents since Jan. 7, with a team-high 27 points coming from 17 goals and 10 assists in that span. Also during that stretch, Hertl has at least one point in 19 of 24 games. The problem, however, is the Golden Knights haven’t given their veteran center much help when he’s adding to the stat sheet, as they’ve lost 10 of those 19 games (9-7-3). Hertl said he had two takeaways from the game.
“Obviously our start wasn’t great, but at same time, how good we can play, like in the second,” Hertl said. “Tonight wasn’t the right day to fall asleep. L.A. jump on us and dominate first. … After that, small details decide it.”
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: Allowing the Kings to start as well as they did was the complete opposite of what we had seen from Vegas during the homestand. The Knights hadn’t trailed in any of their first four games to start the homestand but saw the Kings open a 3-0 lead just 1:56 into the second period. Vegas is 22-7-5 when scoring the first goal of the game, but dropped to 16-12-1 when its opponent scores first.
“Weren’t ready to play, that’s on the coaches to prepare your team to play, we weren’t,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Practice yesterday wasn’t sufficient enough. … It’s also the coaches’ job to get the guys to compete and I thought we did from the second period on, so that’s a positive. … I just think it was probably our worst game of the year in managing pucks in certain areas of the ice and obviously cost us in the end.”
TRAVELING WITH MOMENTUM: Despite the loss, the Knights head to the East Coast on a 7-2-0 run, including a 5-2-0 roll since the 4 Nations Face-Off break. During that stretch, which dates back to Feb. 5, the Knights are allowing a league sixth-lowest 2.56 goals per game. They’ll need their defense when visiting Pittsburgh, Columbus, Buffalo and Detroit. The Knights are 2-0-1 against that quartet and have yet to play the wild-card-seeking Red Wings.
