In a stretch that has seen them win just five times in its last 17 games, the Vegas Golden Knights now hit the road to face the hottest team in the NHL, the Dallas Stars, on Tuesday night.
Dallas, second in the NHL with 88 points, brings in a 12-game point streak into the contest with the lone blip a 5-4 shootout loss to league leader Colorado on Friday night — which snapped a franchise-record 10-game win streak.
The Stars bounced back to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on Sunday, with Miro Heiskanen scoring the game-winner off a Matt Duchene pass 22 seconds into overtime to extend their point streak to a dozen games, tied for the fourth-longest in franchise history. The record of 15 games was set in 1998-99 when Dallas went on to win the Stanley Cup.
“We stuck with it,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “… They’ve played us hard all year and they’ve given us lots of trouble. We were much better (Sunday) than we were in the previous two. The guys got confidence off of that, and they got confidence coming off the winning streak, and we’ve been really good at staying with it in these situations.”
Next up is a Golden Knights team that has sputtered badly since a 7-2 victory over Nashville on Jan. 17. Vegas has gone just 5-10-2 in 17 games since, and has dropped five of its last six contests, falling behind the first-place Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division standings in the process.
Poor starts and goaltending have been major issues. Vegas fell behind 3-0 in four games over a five-game stretch.
The Golden Knights come in off a 4-2 loss to third-place Edmonton, which has defensive issues of its own, on Sunday. Noah Hanifin scored to tie it 1-1 midway through the second period but the game wasn’t as close as the score indicated, with Edmonton hitting the post or crossbar three times before that. Vasily Podkolzin then gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead with a breakaway goal early in the third period, and Leon Draisaitl followed with a goal to make it 3-1.
Vegas made things interesting briefly when Jack Eichel cut it to 3-2 with a short-handed goal with 3:17 left, but Kasperi Kapanen sealed the victory for Edmonton with an empty-netter.
“It’s difficult here right now with what’s going on. It’s frustrating,” Hanifin said. “I thought we played a pretty solid game (Sunday). Had a lot of chances. Just seems to be right now we’re not getting those bounces.
“Obviously, losing to a divisional opponent like that, the way the standings are, it’s tough. But it’s not going to get easier. We have another tough game against Dallas here coming up, and playing every other day or so. Can’t dwell on this. Just got to keep pushing.”
Another troubling fact for Vegas: The Golden Knights have lost 16 of their last 17 games against teams in playoff position. The lone win came in overtime at Detroit, 4-3.
This will be the second of three regular-season meetings between the two teams. Dallas, despite blowing a three-goal lead in the third period, won the first one 5-4 in a shootout on Jan. 29 in Las Vegas with Mavrik Bourque scoring twice and Mikko Rantanen netting the game-winner in the shootout.
