Golden Knights’ penalty kill slips in November
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Golden Knights’ penalty kill, an early-season strength, is slipping.
The Knights have allowed four power-play goals in their past four games, including two in a 4-2 loss at Dallas on Monday. The Stars took the lead in the first period with a power-play goal and added a key power-play goal to extend their lead in the third.
Dallas left wing Alexander Radulov’s second power-play goal of the game made the score 4-2 with 7:49 remaining.
“Our penalty kill just wasn’t good enough,” Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “Sometimes you need that part of the game in that time of the game. A big penalty kill that’s going to propel your guys for the last 10 minutes of that period.”
The Knights’ penalty kill started the season well and still ranks seventh (84.1 percent) in the NHL. But that ranking is propelled by October, when the Knights were 46 of 51 on the penalty kill (90.2 percent).
They are 28 of 37 in November, ranking 24th in the league during that span at 75.7 percent.
It cost them against Dallas. It also cost them against Edmonton on Saturday, when Oilers star Connor McDavid scored a late power-play goal in a 4-2 win.
The Knights now have to hope it doesn’t cost them Wednesday at Nashville. The Predators rank 21st on the power play overall (18.1 percent) and 14th in November (17.6 percent).
“That’s ultimately the difference in the (Dallas) game,” right wing Mark Stone said. “Two power-play goals for them and nothing for us.”
Slow starts continue
The Knights’ losses tend to follow the same script. The team falls behind early and can’t make up for the slow start.
After falling behind 2-0 in Dallas, the Knights are 2-8-3 when their opponent scores first. Their offense, which has scored more than two goals only four times in their past 11 games, hasn’t proved prolific enough to mount comebacks.
Stone pointed to the team’s recent home games against the Calgary Flames (6-0 victory) and Toronto Maple Leafs (4-2 win) as blueprints for success. The Knights scored the first goal in both games and didn’t allow a first-period goal in either.
“You look at the game against Calgary, the game against Toronto, we start the game on time,” Stone said after Monday’s loss. “Yeah, we don’t get that big lead, but it builds comfortability. It sort of wears their team down. When we get sustained o-zone chances, we roll over the lines, (then) one good shift leads into another good shift (and) gets momentum for the team. There were times of that where we did a really good job of that tonight. But for 60 minutes we got to sustain (it).”
Stastny hits milestone
Center Paul Stastny played in his 900th NHL game Monday and celebrated by scoring a third-period goal. It was the 240th goal and 699th point of the 33-year-old’s career.
Stastny scored after being reunited on the second line with left wing Max Pacioretty and Stone. He spent the previous six games centering the third line and had one goal.
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Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.
