The Vegas Golden Knights will try to avoid their longest losing streak in almost three years when they face the New Jersey Devils on Thursday in Newark, N.J.
The Golden Knights, second in the Pacific Division behind the Edmonton Oilers, have lost four in a row (0-2-2) for the second time this season and have dropped 11 of their last 14 games (3-8-3). Vegas hasn’t lost five straight games since March 8-15, 2022, the only season in franchise history that the Golden Knights failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Vegas is playing the third game of a four-game eastern road trip and comes in off a 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday. The Golden Knights lost despite yielding 14 shots on goal — matching the fewest allowed in franchise history — and putting 34 shots on Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
“It’s tough,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “I thought we played good. I think giving up 14 shots, throughout the season, a lot of times you’re going to be on the better end. We just didn’t get it inside enough. We whacked away, but it’s something we have to really focus on. We have two games left before the (4 Nations Face-Off) break and we have to be better.”
Brock Nelson scored the game-winner on a deflection of an Alexander Romanov shot midway through the third period.
Vegas, which has lost six of its last seven road contests, has scored just four goals over its last three games.
“All of these games are pretty tight, just got to find ways to bury more pucks,” center Nicolas Roy said. “You’re not going to win a lot of games on the road when you score one goal. We’ve got to find a way to score more goals.”
New Jersey, third in the Metropolitan Division, has won four of its last six games and comes in off a 3-2 shootout victory at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Jack Hughes scored two goals, Timo Meier netted the winner in the seventh round of the shootout and Nicolas Daws made 25 saves for the Devils, who are just two points behind second-place Carolina entering Thursday.
New Jersey led 2-0 midway through the second period but yielded goals to Rickard Rakell late in the second period and Kevin Hayes midway through the third, setting the stage for the eventual shootout.
“I liked our game and what we did to build the 2-0 lead to begin with,” Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It would have been nice to get the third one or not give up the one at the end of the second. Lots of resilience. Guys were battling, guys were tired, through overtime, through the shootout. … All in all, it’s a good two points.”
“We would have liked a different third period to secure us this win in regular time,” Meier said. “But at the end it doesn’t matter how you win. We got two points. Now we go back to New Jersey, we regroup after this game. We’ve got two more before the break, and we want to end those two games with a win.”
–Field Level Media
