Golden Knights end road trip with loss to Red Wings
With two victories stashed in their pocket and no chance of enduring a losing road trip, the Golden Knights were on a freeroll Sunday.
Despite being on the wrong end of the special teams battle in the first period and enduring a closer-than-the-score-indicates 5-2 loss to the Red Wings, the Knights left Little Caesars Arena in Detroit feeling good about their work over the previous six days.
Except for the hypercritical Jonathan Marchessault, of course. The winger is never satisfied.
“When you go .500 on a road trip, it’s just OK,” he said. “It could have been a great road trip if we won tonight.”
Marchessault scored his team-leading sixth goal early in the third period to cut the Red Wings lead to 4-2, and the Knights made a strong push on the second game of a back to back.
Detroit goalie Thomas Greiss made 19 of his 38 saves in the third to drop the Knights back to .500 overall at 6-6.
The Knights finished the road trip 2-2 and open a six-game homestand Tuesday against Seattle.
Pius Suter and Tyler Bertuzzi each finished with a goal and an assist for the Red Wings, who went 2-for-4 on the power play.
Center Nicolas Roy opened the scoring 3:48 into the first period and had an assist for his fifth point in the past three games since moving up to the first line.
“We made some mental mistakes,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “But I’m proud of our group’s resiliency. They’re not making excuses. They’re coming out and they’re working and we’re finding a way to be competitive.”
Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. Brossoit battles
Goaltending has been a strength for the Knights, but Laurent Brossoit was shaky early in his first appearance since Oct. 27.
The Red Wings touched up Brossoit for three goals on seven shots in the first period.
He also gave up a bad goal in the second period when Vladislav Namestnikov banked the puck off Brossoit from a sharp angle.
Brossoit, who stopped 25 of 29 shots, lost for the first time in four career decisions against Detroit.
“I think he would have liked at least one back in the first,” DeBoer said. “But listen, we ask him to play once every two, three weeks. It’s not an easy thing to do.”
2. Instant karma
The Knights were outshot 49-16 in the first period of the previous three games combined — that includes 20-1 by Montreal on Saturday — and fortunate to come back twice to earn victories.
Against the Red Wings, they had twice as many shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes and generated 2.58 expected goals to 0.55 for Detroit.
Yet they went into the intermission trailing by two goals. Go figure.
“It was probably our best first period of the trip and we’re down 3-1,” DeBoer said incredulously. “Like the hockey gods evening it up for last night.”
Added Marchessault: “I thought we played really well in the first period and they had two power-play goals, so that was unfortunate.”
3. Bright future
The Red Wings haven’t made the playoffs since 2016 but are starting to turn the corner under general manager Steve Yzerman.
Lucas Raymond, the fourth pick in the 2020, scored a power-play goal in the first period and created a handful of other chances. The native of Gothenburg, Sweden leads all NHL rookies with six goals and 14 points.
Moritz Seider, 20, logged a team-leading 22:58 of ice time and has the look of a potential franchise defenseman.
“I thought both units of their power play were really good,” Marchessault said. “They were recovering pucks, they were getting good scoring chances. Honestly, just the way it went tonight.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
