The Carolina Hurricanes could not make it two for two against the NHL’s newest franchise this season. With a sloppy performance in their second game in as many nights, the Canes fell 5-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights at PNC Arena Sunday.
Vegas (31-11-4) scored two power-play goals against the Canes (21-18-8). Carolina goalie Scott Darling allowed three goals on just eight shots faced, leading to him being replaced by Cam Ward in the first period. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin scored Carolina’s lone goal on a first-period power play, and the team did not have nearly the effort it needed to across the board against one of the league’s best teams.
“It didn’t look like it to me,” head coach Bill Peters said. “When you look at some of the numbers, look at some of the stats from the game it will tell you. You can do your own math on that. The expectation on where guys need to be and what’s provided, it wasn’t close.”
The Golden Knights struck quickly in this one, as forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was left wide open at the top of the right circle and finished a drop a pass from forward William Carrier less than three minutes in.
“I just don’t think we were able to execute as well as we wanted all over, all areas of the ice,” defenseman Justin Faulk said. “It was obviously a step below the level we want to play at and play at consistently.”
Vegas made it 2-0 with 7:40 to play in the first with a power-play goal courtesy of a point shot by defenseman Colin Miller.
Forward Jonathan Marchessault put the Golden Knights up by three 39 seconds later with a soft shot through Darling’s five hole that the Canes’ netminder would almost certainly want back, prompting Peters to replace him with Ward. Peters said after the game replacing Darling was more about sending a message to the team in front of him.
“That’s what it’s about,” Peters said. “The second one is unfortunate, it’s a deflection off of our guy and then the third one I’ve got to go back to …Tough sequence of events. I thought there was a stretch in the first there where the game was up and down and it was going pretty good but we didn’t stay with it.”
A big hit from Canes forward Elias Lindholm on Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt with less than a minute left in the first gave the Canes a boost. Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault dropped the gloves with Lindholm, drawing a double minor for roughing.
Slavin snapped home a shot from the top of the left circle on the ensuing power play, putting the Canes on the board and making it a 3-1 game.
The Canes were unable to build off that momentum, however. Forward James Neal put the Golden Knights back up by three with a power-play goal with six minutes and change left in the second period, and forward Brendan Leipsic chipped in an insurance marker a little over halfway through the third period.
“I think in the second period we did skate pretty well,” Slavin said. “They had their chances and there was a few that we just had to capitalize on.”
The loss was the Canes’ fifth in their last seven games. The team will need to reverse course quickly if it hopes to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“It’s time,” Peters said. “You’ve seen it throughout every team in the league really, except the teams that are running away and ahead. In our division you’ve seen streaky teams, you’ve seen teams streaking out West right now too. Everybody is capable of it if you’re willing to do it each and every night. It hurts. Winning consistently hurts. There’s a price to be paid. There’s a physical price to be paid to win.”
The Canes will hit the road after this one for a trip to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins Tuesday night.
