6-game winning streak ends for short-handed Golden Knights

It was always going to be a difficult situation for the Golden Knights on Monday playing their fifth game in eight days.

Facing a hungry Minnesota Wild team and a hot goaltender made the task even tougher.

Doing it without their two highest-paid players was too much to overcome.

Leading scorer Mark Stone and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo sat out with undisclosed injuries, and the Knights saw their six-game winning streak end in a 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“I really felt with our depth that we could compete, and I thought we did,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought defensively and with our goaltender we gave ourselves a chance. We just didn’t do enough to score.”

Stone, who was named the NHL’s first star of the week Monday, did not play in the third period of Saturday’s game at San Jose. DeBoer said afterward it was “precautionary more than an injury.”

Pietrangelo blocked a shot with his left arm during the final three minutes of that game and was in discomfort on the bench for the remainder of the 4-0 victory over the Sharks.

DeBoer said both are still being evaluated, and their status for Wednesday’s game at Minnesota was not known.

Without Stone, the Knights (16-5-1) generated a season-low 12 scoring chances at all strengths and matched a season low with four high-danger chances, according to NaturalStatTrick.

“You’re always going to miss guys like that when they’re not in the lineup,” left wing Max Pacioretty said. “It was an opportunity tonight for some guys to step up with some bodies out of the lineup. We’ve just got to be like that five to 10 percent better to try and make that extra play.”

Marc-Andre Fleury started for the 12th time in the past 13 games and was outdueled by Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who won his seventh straight start. The rookie finished with 26 saves to record his first shutout.

The Knights, who scored four or more goals in each of their past four games, were blanked for the second time this season.

“We’re getting a lot of games in a short period of time,” Fleury said. “I think the guys put up a good effort. Obviously we’re missing two big players for our team. It was a close game. I don’t think we got outplayed that bad. We still had a chance to win that one.”

The Knights went more than 11 minutes in the first period without a shot on goal and committed several turnovers that put Fleury in a tough spot.

Minnesota finally capitalized on one of the miscues when Keegan Kolesar turned over the puck in the offensive zone and Pacioretty was caught up ice, creating an odd-man rush.

Kevin Fiala finished off the play at 10:51 of the first period, when he moved into the slot and beat Fleury (20 saves) high to the blocker side for his eighth goal.

The Knights improved as the game went along but were unable to crack Kahkonen, who made 14 stops in the second period.

Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin was awarded an empty-net goal in the final seconds of the third when Jonathan Marchessault slashed the defenseman on a breakaway.

“We started to find our game there a little bit more,” Pacioretty said. “There were some opportunities, and in a 1-0 game you got to really get heavy on your stick to try and be the difference maker, and we weren’t able to get that equalizer.”

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