Knights unable to wield third-period magic in 3-2 loss to Mammoth

LAS VEGAS — That third-period magic we’ve seen from the Vegas Golden Knights all season failed to materialize when the team needed it the most.


The Knights, who were a plus-27 in the third period this year, were unable to get the key goal in order to hold serve in their opening-round series with Utah. Instead, it was the Mammoth’s Logan Cooley who delivered with six minutes remaining to give the franchise its first-ever playoff victory, 3-2 at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday night.

Game 3 will be Friday at the Delta Center where the Mammoth now have the home-ice advantage by virtue of its split in Las Vegas.

“I thought we prepared today to win the game and we stayed in the present,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. ”I was proud of our guys for staying on an even keel. They’re a good team with a lot of structure.

“We got one. But we still have a lot of work to get done.”

For John Tortorella, it was the first time he experienced losing in regulation since taking over March 30 for Bruce Cassidy. Vegas was 7-0-1 in the regular season and had won Game 1, 4-2. And while Tortorella was a disappointed with the loss, he understood that in the playoffs, one play, good or bad, can decide the outcome.

“I thought our first period was one of our best since I’ve been here,” he said. :”The second period was no flow. We got all disjointed. We started well in the third period but they made a play and got a goal.”

Game 2 was nearly as physical as the opening game with the two teams combining for 72 hits, the Mammoth having 39. The reason things got disjointed as Tortorella pointed out was the 14 penalties that were called. Five roughing minors, an unsportsmanlike conduct call and Cole Smith getting whistled for removing an opponent’s helmet made up the majority of the fouls that were whistled by Kelly Sutherland and Corey Syvret, the men in stripes Tuesday.

“It messed up a lot of rhythm,” said the Knights’ Mitch Marner. “It’s tough. When you get a lot of calls, it ruins the rhythm.

“There’s nothing you can do about it. Just focus on the next shift.”

Cooley felt the Mammoth handled it fairly well.

“There’s a lot of emotions in these games,” he said. Lots of ups and downs. We tried to stay level-headed.”

Dylan Guenther, who  scored Utah’s second goal in the second period to give the aMammoth a 2-1 lead and assisted on Cooley’s game-winner, said of being level-headed: “We’ve been that way all year. It was a choppy game with a lot of penalties. We just stayed with it.”

For the Mammoth, to get a split in Vegas going back 1-1 to what will be raucous atmosphere at home Friday, not only reinforced its belief it could hang with the Knights, but also prevail, and on the road no less.

“I felt we had earned the right to be here,” Guenther said.

Tourigny said: “If you want to win the series, you have to win at some point. Today, we got better and the objective is how can we be better on Friday?”

For the Knights, who got goals from Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev with Jack Eichel assisting on both tallies, it’s about getting Pavel Dorofeyev, the team’s leading goal-scorer with 37 during the regular season, going in the postseason, along with Tomas Hertl, who still hasn’t scored since March 4.

Dorofeyev has been limited to just five shots in the first two games. Hertl, who remains on the first power play unit despite his cold streak, managed just one shot Tuesday. He did contribute in other ways, winning six of the 11 faceoffs he took and had five hits, equalling the team-high along with Keegan Kolesar.

Both teams plan to take Wednesday off, practice on Thursday and get ready to resume the series Friday. But the series everyone expected is coming to fruition — long, hard, physical and arduous with little room to maneuver and battles all over the ice.

“Just got to get ready for the next one,” Marner said.