Golden Knights Struggle To Score Once More, Lose 2-1 to Flyers

In game one of their longest road trip of the season, the Vegas Golden Knights (32-22-4, 68 points) dropped an important game to the Philadelphia Flyers (18-28-10, 46 points) by a score of 2-1.

The Golden Knights have lost to both the NHL’s 29th (Flyers) and 31st (Arizona Coyotes) worst teams in terms of overall wins in the past two weeks. This is just the Flyers’ fifth win in the calendar year of 2022.

The Golden Knights offense was there, with 48 shots on Carter Hart. But the team once again ran into a brick wall offensively. They can’t score. They have been outscored 32-23 in their last eleven games.

No lineup changes were made by the Golden Knights outside of Evgenii Dadonov and William Carrier switching in the bottom-six. Robin Lehner got the start and made 19 saves on 21 shots.

A minute in, Jack Eichel drew a penalty. With some solid sustained pressure on the ensuing powerplay, it looked like it was only a matter of time for the VGK to open the scoring and control the game.

But the Golden Knight’s momentum was put on halt as the Flyers scored on their first shot of the game. After a simple zone entry, Justin Braun beat Robin Lehner on a shot that Lehner saw clear as day.

No tips, no traffic, no deflections. But it was 1-0 Flyers.

The Golden Knights gave the Flyers little to work with but they took full advantage and scored another goal late in the period. Right after a cross-checking penalty to Ben Hutton expired, Oskar Lindblom scored on a wrap-around chance on Lehner.

The Flyers led the Golden Knights 2-0 after twenty minutes of play, scoring on two of just eight shots.

Outside of Lehner’s shaky goaltending, special teams became the story of the game. A total of nine penalties were called between the VGK and the Broad Street Bullies.

On the Flyers’ third penalty of the game, a too-many-men call, the Golden Knights scored their first goal of the game. With his first in 18 games, Evgenii Dadonov finally broke free on a tic-tac-toe play set up by Jonathan Marchessault and Jack Eichel.

9+81+63=🚨 pic.twitter.com/wE6ni8dSgn

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 9, 2022

This is the second powerplay goal in as many games for the Golden Knights and the first road powerplay goal since December 28th. The Golden Knights continued their strong powerplay performance with a solid fourth opportunity where Hart played almost the entirety of the PK without a stick.

But despite controlling most of the game the Golden Knights still trailed by one heading into the final twenty minutes of the game. The Flyers held on and won the game 2-1.

Since February 9th, only four goals have been scored by the Golden Knights in the third period.

The Golden Knights had no late-game magic left in them after Eichel’s buzzer-beater game-winner Sunday night against the Senators. Ivan Provorov took a delay of game penalty and the Golden Knights once again operated on the six-on-four but could not score.

This is yet again another tough loss for the Golden Knights who continue to give up points against weak opponents. They will play the Buffalo Sabres next Thursday at 4:00 pm.

VHN’s Player of the Game: Evgenii Dadonov

Good for him to find the back of the net once more. But the Golden Knights need more offense from everybody.