Golden Knights allow 4 unanswered goals, fall to Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nearly everything about Tuesday’s game felt big, from the national TV audience to the Halloween costumes throughout Bridgestone Arena to the rally towels implanted with an LED light.

There was even a spoof of the Golden Knights’ pregame show, complete with a sword and stone, that added to the atmosphere.

The Knights embraced the moment in the first period but couldn’t sustain their effort and suffered a 4-1 loss to Nashville in front of an announced crowd of 17,367.

“For me, we played the perfect road period against a real good team in the first,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “And then after that, we made some real bad mistakes and it cost us goals every time.”

Ryan Hartman scored two goals 57 seconds apart in the second period, and Juuse Saros finished with 23 saves for the Central Division-leading Predators.

Reilly Smith had a power-play goal in the first period for the Knights, who bottled up Nashville with a tenacious forecheck and never let the Predators break out of their zone cleanly.

But the Knights were limited to 11 shots on goal in the final two periods after recording 13 in the opening 20 minutes.

“We made a couple mistakes maybe over-forechecking and not covering for each other as well as we should, and they did a good job capitalizing on odd-man rushes,” Smith said. “I think it was a game tailored to them where they just threw a lot of pucks to the neutral zone and waited for bounces. They were able to capitalize on them.”

Knights goaltender Malcolm Subban, who beat Nashville in a shootout here on Dec. 8, earned the start and finished with 25 saves.

He didn’t get much help in the final two periods, however, as the Knights allowed multiple odd-man rushes.

“Coach said it best. It looked like an East-West all-star hockey game out there at one point with all the 2-on-1s back and forth,” forward Alex Tuch said. “In the end, we probably had less than they did and they were able to capitalize. We can’t have that. Sloppy. It’s not our game. We don’t give up those odd-man rushes. I thought we hung Malcolm out to dry.”

Hartman, who was foiled by Subban on two earlier chances, danced around defenseman Colin Miller and beat Subban high on the backhand at 11:27 of the second to tie the game at 1.

Less than a minute later, Knights defenseman Jon Merrill was unable to hold the puck in the zone, leading to a 3-on-1 for Nashville.

Hartman finished off the rush when he one-timed a feed from Kevin Fiala to put the Predators on top 2-1.

“You have to try and make a save there. Maybe if you stop one of those and it’s 2-1 instead of 3-1,” Subban said, unnecessarily shouldering the blame. “That’s why you become a goaltender, to make those saves. People don’t expect you to, but when your team makes a mistake you want to be there to bail them out.”

Calle Jarnkrok gave the Predators a 3-1 lead with 13:23 left in the third period when he buried a pass from Kyle Turris on a 2-on-1.

Fiala finished with two assists, and defenseman Roman Josi added two helpers for Nashville.

“You can’t play like that,” Gallant said. “We played a great first period against them. We did exactly what you’re supposed to do and then we forced the issue too much and made some bad choices pinching.”

The Knights controlled the latter half of the first period, holding the Predators without a shot on goal for the final 8:51.

Smith put the Knights on top when he converted a cross-ice pass from Jonathan Marchessault on a power play with 2:46 left in the period.

“There was times in the first when we were on the same page and times in the third, but we’ve got to put together a full 60 minutes or else it’s not going to work,” Tuch said. “We were up 1-0 after the first period. I thought we fell apart a little bit. We’ve just got to be better.”

More Golden Knights: Follow online at reviewjournal.com/GoldenKnights and @HockeyinVegas on Twitter.

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