Both teams started their backup goaltenders in tonight’s game. The L.A. Kings’ Jack “Soupy” Campbell was starting in his first game in 4½ years and only his third NHL start ever. It looked like this might be a good spot for the VGK to rebound from a disappointing loss on Monday night to the Kings in L.A., in which they led the entire way before blowing a two-goal lead with just eight minutes left in the game.
It started off like it would be, with William Karlsson scoring his team-leading (34) goal and the first goal of the game just 5:27 into the game. But that was the only goal that Soupy Campbell gave up all night. He stopped all of the other 41 shots Vegas managed to get on net.
Instead of Marc Andre Fleury, who had started the last 11 games for Vegas, the VGK started Max Lagace, who last played on December 9. Unfortunately, Vegas hung Max out to dry with two costly turnovers that resulted in the first two L.A. goals.
The first was an egregious error by Vegas forward Ryan Carpenter, when he was literally standing on his blue line with the puck on his stick. What should have been a routine play of moving the puck out of his defensive zone and into the neutral zone turned into a nightmare when, for some unknown reason, Carpenter passed the puck back into his zone and right to the front of the net. Kings’ forward Kyle Clifford, in front of the net, seemed just as surprised as everyone on the ice, along with the 18,000-plus in attendance at T-Mobile. Still, he wasted no time and quickly deposited the puck behind Max Lagace, who wasn’t prepared. Clifford’s goal came just 3:09 after Karlsson’s and regained the momentum for the Kings.
The second Vegas turnover that turned into L.A.’s game-winning goal happened when Jonathan Marchessault’s pass to Reilly Smith just as he was entering the neutral zone bounced off his stick. It headed toward Dyrek Engelland who couldn’t not handle the bouncing puck. The Kings’Tyler Toffoli caught both Reilly Smith and Deryk Engelland flatfooted on the blue line when he swooped in on the loose puck, skated toward the net, and beat Lagace high to the stick side, putting L.A. up 2-1.
Coach Gallant was asked post-game about the mistakes his team made. “The mistakes were self-inflicted. You saw the goals. We made some bad mistakes in the neutral zone and turned some pucks over. They capitalized. We didn’t get enough people going to the net and we didn’t battle hard enough. That was the difference in the game.”
When Gallant was further pressed for a reason why he team made errors that are so out of character, he responded, “It just looked like our team was tired.”
He acknowledged that L.A. had the same travel schedule as his team, but they seemed much less affected by it than his team appeared to be.
The Kings capitalized on every error that Vegas committed or so it seemed. On the Kings’ third goal, Anze Kopitar took a pass from Alex Iafallo, who intercepted Luca Sbisa’s weak clearing pass up the left wing boards. Kopitar also scored in the game on Monday night in this back-to-back series with just 10:8 left to send Monday’s game into overtime. Kopitar’s goals in both games broke the spirit of the Knights and sealed the two wins for L.A. Jeff Carter added the fourth L.A. goal on a late power play. That was also Carter’s second goal in back-to-back games.
Vegas has now lost two games in a row after scoring the first goal of the game.
Vegas had scored 17 power-play goals in their last 17 games, but went 0-4 last night and 0-3 in Monday night’s game.
Ironically, VGK had a number of quality scoring chances during the six power plays that the Kings were awarded. L.A. was 1 for 6 on their power play tonight.
The VGK’s next game is Friday at T-Mobile at 7 p.m. Vegas then heads out onto a on a five-game east coast road trip before they return to T-Mobile on Wednesday March 14 vs. the New Jersey Devils.
One final note: my apology. My post about Monday’s game was submitted in haste to get it to my editor, knowing that I had back-to-back post for last night’s game. I misread my notes and switched the tying goal with the winning goal in overtime. Anze Kopitar scored the tying goal, but I gave him credit for the winning goal in OT. Dustin Brown actually scored the winning goal in OT. Oops.
Never miss another post