Vegas Golden Knights’ gallant comeback falls short in loss to Boston Bruins
BOSTON — The Vegas Golden Knights have made a habit of coming back from multigoal deficits this season.
Two has been the magic number. They nearly made it four Thursday night against the Boston Bruins, but fell short in a 4-3 loss at TD Garden.
The Knights trailed 4-0 after two periods due to a barrage in the first period that saw the Bruins score three times in 54 seconds. Two of them came on the same power play following a high-sticking double minor called on Tomas Hertl.
Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy and center Elias Lindholm scored twice in 30 seconds. Winger Tanner Jeannot scored 24 seconds later off a turnover from Ben Hutton to put the Knights in a quick three-goal hole.
“You got to do a better job putting out fires,” Reilly Smith said. “Just collectively as a group, we can be better at not letting those momentum swings hurt us like that.”
Jack Eichel and Hertl scored twice in 2:30 to cut the deficit in half, and Pavel Dorofeyev added a six-on-five goal with 2:35 left to make it a one-goal game, but the Knights couldn’t find the equalizer.
Goaltender Akira Schmid finished with 24 saves — 12 of them in a first period where the Bruins outshot the Knights 15-4.
Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said he walked away encouraged by the third period and disappointed by the first.
“It was good to see us get to our game eventually,” Cassidy said. “Otherwise, it was going to be a really long night.”
Bruins leading scorer David Pastrnak made it 4-0 at 7:25 of the second to complete a three-point night for him.
The Knights (24-13-12) finish the second leg of the back-to-back Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Mitch Marner’s return.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
1. Missed opportunities
Playing the ‘what if?’ game is never a good thing, but it could apply to the Knights in this scenario.
The Knights got a power play 3:22 into the game despite the Bruins looking dominant from the jump. They couldn’t take advantage.
After going 1-for-7 on the man advantage Monday against Philadelphia, the first unit generated close to nothing. The second unit had the best chance with Ivan Barbashev on the weak side, but Boston’s Joonas Korpisalo made a sliding save.
Do the Bruins score three goals on three straight shots if the Knights capitalize?
“Yeah, possibly,” Smith said. “You never know about those things.”
The Knights struggled to manage the puck in the first two periods because of Boston’s swarming point of attack. They had no answer for the Bruins’ pressure.
“Our PK has been good all year,” Cassidy said. “You can give up one. That happens. But if you give up two, the fans are into it, the team’s into it. They’re feeling it.”
2. Tough stretch for Hertl
Though Hertl got on the board with his 21st goal, it’s been a rough couple of games for him.
The penalty wasn’t intentional, and he didn’t mean to make Bruins winger Alex Steeves bleed to trigger the four minutes, but it still resulted in falling behind.
On Boston’s fourth goal, Hertl was muscled off by Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov, who found Pastrnak alone in front at 7:25 to make it 4-0.
Hertl had a turnover on Monday that led to the first of two breakaway goals for Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny, a moment Hertl took full blame for.
He redeemed himself with the goal, but that’s three plays in two games that have been a result of Hertl.
3. Stone sets the mark
Mark Stone’s heater continues.
The captain recorded an assist on Hertl’s goal to extend his point streak to a franchise-record 13 straight games.
Stone surpassed Eichel’s mark that he set in 2023-24. Stone, who has 20 points in this stretch, is the first Knights’ skater to reach 20 points throughout a point streak.
“He does so many little things,” Eichel said Thursday morning. “He finds ways to score. He finds ways to produce. I’m not surprised at all.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
