Golden Knights fall behind early, headed back to Minnesota

Alex Tuch lingered on the ice after the final buzzer, hunched over, the forward’s stick resting across his knees.

The Golden Knights exerted maximum effort Monday night trying to come back from a first-period hole, but were left gasping for air at the end.

Wild goaltender Cam Talbot finished with 38 stops, and the Knights missed an opportunity to close out their West Division first-round playoff series with a 4-2 setback in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena.

The best-of-seven series continues with Game 6 at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Knights lead 3-2, with the winner advancing to face Colorado.

“I think if we come with the same effort we’ll get a different result, but we can’t be down 3-1 after the first period,” Knights captain Mark Stone said. “It finally cost us. We’ve been down in a couple games and been able to claw our way back, but today we just couldn’t get it done.”

The Knights were looking to close out a series at home for the first time in franchise history, but their comeback fell short after Minnesota scored three goals in the first period.

The road team has won four of the games in the series.

Kirill Kaprizov, Zach Parise and Jordan Greenway had first-period goals, and Nico Sturm added an empty-net goal for the Wild.

Alec Martinez scored on a power play in the second period to cut the Knights’ deficit to 3-2. Talbot stopped 21 of 22 shots in the period and helped Minnesota stave off elimination with a handful of key stops in the third.

The Knights have lost seven of their past nine potential series-clinching games after going 3-0 in that scenario during their inaugural season en route to the Stanley Cup Final.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury allowed three goals on 13 shots and fell to 14-20 during his career in potential series-clinching games, including four straight losses with the Knights.

“I think we just have to be a little smarter, have a little more urgency with the puck the first period,” winger Reilly Smith said. “I really don’t think it’s anything major. We can’t wait until we’re down a couple goals to start upping our intensity.”

Minnesota debuted new forward lines and stunned the announced crowd of 12,156 with three straight goals after Stone snapped a shot past Talbot for a 1-0 Knights lead at 8:14 of the first period.

Less than a minute later, Mats Zuccarello weaved through the Knights defense and found an opening through the middle of the ice when Chandler Stephenson and Brayden McNabb collided.

Zuccarello’s cross-ice pass connected with Kaprizov, and the rookie of the year favorite ripped a dart past Fleury’s glove for his first goal of the series that ended Minnesota’s streak of 120:36 without scoring.

Veteran Zach Parise, who entered the Wild’s lineup in Game 4 after Marcus Johansson sustained a broken arm, banked a shot off Fleury from the side of the net following a hard bounce from the end boards.

Jordan Greenway put the Wild ahead 3-1 with 3:26 remaining in the period when he jammed in his own rebound on the third attempt.

The Knights responded with an onslaught against Talbot in the second period, tilting the ice for almost the entire 20 minutes.

They finished with lopsided advantages in shot attempts (40-3) and shots on goal (22-1) as Minnesota bunkered down and tried to protect its lead.

Martinez converted on a power play midway through the period, cutting the Wild’s lead to 3-2.

The defenseman launched a one-timer from the right circle with nine seconds remaining on a delay of game penalty to the Wild’s Matt Dumba.

“It was one of those nights where the looks they got, they found a way to put them in” coach Pete DeBoer said. “The puck was bouncing their way. They were opportunistic. I think we weren’t. I thought we pushed hard. There was a lot of good that happened tonight. Just didn’t stick enough pucks in the net.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.