Early, crucial mistakes cost Golden Knights against Penguins

The Golden Knights know the importance of a good start.

They know their record when they score first (16-4-1) is far better than theirs when they don’t (8-12-5). They know what whipping the T-Mobile Arena crowd into a frenzy can do to opposing teams. They know how crucial it is to not be chasing the game from the outset.

Yet, there they were Tuesday down 3-0 for the second straight game. It didn’t cost them Saturday in their 5-4 overtime victory against the St. Louis Blues, but it did against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Early mistakes lost the Knights two points in a game where they appeared to be the better team.

“We’ve played real good hockey lately and tonight we made some early mistakes and it ended up in the back of the net,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “Some nights you make those mistakes and you catch a break and they don’t go in. But tonight they did.”

Those mistakes started less than three minutes into the game. Defenseman Nate Schmidt turned the puck over to center Evgeni Malkin — the best forward in the Penguins’ lineup Tuesday — and handed Pittsburgh a free entry into the offensive zone.

The Penguins took advantage. Malkin gave the puck to left wing Dominik Kahun, who attempted a centering pass to right wing Bryan Rust. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury tried to deflect the puck away, but it bounced off him and Rust and into the slot.

Malkin was there, pounced and scored off a backhand shot.

“I thought the start was really good, I will say that,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “You get up like that in a game, it certainly helps your cause.”

The Penguins helped themselves even more less than five minutes later. Defenseman Jack Johnson fired a shot from the point that bounced off Fleury’s right pad. Right wing Patric Hornqvist beat Schmidt to the rebound for an easy goal that made it 2-0 7:10 into the game.

“Fleury is always going to make that first save,” center Paul Stastny said. “That’s his job. The second one is for us and usually when we’re playing well, we clear those pucks and get them out of the scoring zone a little bit. That one we didn’t.”

Those two goals, both of which were preventable by the Knights, put the team in an early hole. That’s not where the Knights want to be in the first period of a home game.

They recovered, and came close to tying the game, but they would have had a much better shot at winning if they started the game better. Their slow start is how they were able to lose despite a 56-29 edge in shot attempts and a 25-15 advantage in scoring chances.

“That’s not winning hockey when you’re playing from behind,” Stastny said. “We didn’t give up much, but the chances we gave up were pretty opportune chances they made nice plays on. That’s what hurts you is when you give up (16) shots (on goal) and a not many Grade A (chances), but a couple lapses that kind of killed us.”

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Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.