The Vegas Golden Knights play their first home game in over a month when they host the Minnesota Wild on Friday night in Las Vegas.
Vegas hasn’t played at T-Mobile Arena since a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 5, the team’s final game before the Olympic break. The Pacific Division leaders then returned to action with a five-game road trip that concluded with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory at Detroit on Wednesday.
The win over the Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak and marked the fifth time this season that Vegas rallied from a two-goal deficit to pull out a win. Ivan Barbashev and Mitch Marner each scored third-period goals to tie it, 3-3, and Tomas Hertl then scored a 4-on-3 power play goal at 2:11 of overtime to complete the comeback.
“Hopefully it will get us going because we knew it wasn’t ideal hockey, but we got two points and that’s all that matters right now,” Hertl said.
Vegas continues to struggle with slow starts, being outscored 15-4 in the first two periods across five games on the trip. The Golden Knights needed five third-period goals to come back and win 6-4 against the Kings to kick off the trip, then lost 3-2 at Washington, suffered a 5-0 blowout at Pittsburgh and lost again 3-2 at Buffalo before finishing strong against the Red Wings.
“We’re not used to losing that many games in a row, to be honest,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
The good news is that Vegas plays six of its next seven games at home, starting with Friday’s contest with Minnesota, and still holds a one-point lead over second-place Anaheim in a tight Pacific Division race.
“Now we have more games at home,” Hertl said. “We’ve got some tough teams coming in, so we have to prove that we can be the team we’re supposed to be. It has to start at home because we know that we can be way better at home.”
Minnesota, third in the Central Division, comes in off an impressive 5-1 win over Atlantic Division-leading Tampa Bay on Tuesday. Kirill Kaprizov, who hit the post three times earlier in the contest, scored an empty-netter to seal the win and also break the franchise career goals scored record previously held by Marian Gaborik with 219.
“Crazy,” Kaprizov said. “Three posts or something? I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ So many chances, and just didn’t score.”
It was Kaprizov’s 35th goal of the season, tying him for second in the league with teammate Matt Boldy, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Cole Caufield of Montreal, six goals behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (41).
Both teams have been busy ahead of the trade deadline. Minnesota, which made a big splash when it picked up defenseman Quinn Hughes from Vancouver back on Dec. 13, acquired 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward Michael McCarron from Nashville for a second-round draft pick on Tuesday, and added veteran defenseman Jeff Petry from the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday.
McCarron, who has dropped the gloves three times with Wild defenseman Jake Middleton and once with forward Marcus Foligno in recent years, is expected to play a key role on the penalty kill and on faceoffs. He practiced with the team on Thursday.
“Super-excited to come into such a well-oiled machine,” McCarron said. “Minny is such a great team to play against. Had some good battles against a lot of guys on this team, and I’m glad I’m on their side now. Very excited.”
Petry is scheduled to meet the team in Las Vegas. The Wild also play a Sunday afternoon contest at Central leader Colorado before opening a four-game homestand against Utah on Tuesday.
Vegas, which placed captain Mark Stone on injured reserve with an upper-body injury on Thursday, obtained veteran forward Nic Dowd from Washington in exchange for goaltender Jesper Vikman, a third-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2029.
–Field Level Media
