Golden Knights can’t hold third-period lead, fall to Wild

Protecting leads in the third period has been a key component of the Golden Knights’ success.

But for the second straight game, they couldn’t seal the deal against Minnesota.

The Knights allowed two goals in the third period 55 seconds apart and dropped a 2-1 decision in front of an announced crowd of 3,950 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I thought we played well but kind of just let off the gas,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “When they scored there, we got down on the bench. I think we have to fix that. We have to have a little bit more spark to our game and correct that right away.”

The Knights, who were 15-0 when leading after two periods, fell further behind first-place Colorado in the West Division. They lead Minnesota by two points in the race for second with 20 games remaining.

Wild rookie Kirill Kaprizov tied the score at 1 at 6:13 of the third period when he banged in a pass from Joel Eriksson Ek for his 14th goal. Minnesota’s league-worst power play also converted in the third period to tie the score Thursday en route to a 3-2 shootout victory.

Eriksson Ek notched the go-ahead goal less than a minute later when he put home his own rebound after Marc-Andre Fleury made the initial save.

Fleury finished with 25 saves but lost for the fourth time in his past five appearances.

“We knew coming into the series you were going to have to win netfront,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought the story of tonight was that their two goals traveled a combined probably 8 to 12 inches. They were both right around the crease.”

The Knights had a full complement of 12 forwards and six defensemen for the first time in three games despite playing without forwards Chandler Stephenson (suspension) and Ryan Reaves (lower-body injury) and defenseman Zach Whitecloud (upper body).

But the Wild blocked 26 shots and sent the Knights to their third loss in a row (0-2-1) for the first time under DeBoer. Minnesota took three of four points from the series and has won four straight over the Knights.

“We’ve had our looks, we’ve had our chances,” winger Mark Stone said. “We’re right there with a chance to win the game and just give up two goals. We’ve just got to find ways to score more goals.”

Tomas Nosek scored in the first period for the Knights, who went 0-for-3 on the power play and wasted a pair of odd-man rushes along with a breakaway by Jonathan Marchessault late in the second.

Reilly Smith also hit the post on a power play in the second period.

“We’re up 1-0 and had multiple opportunities in the second period to extend that lead to 2-0, which changes the entire face of the game,” DeBoer said. “When you let a team hang around and don’t finish those opportunities and put them in a hole when you have that chance, they were real opportunistic in the third.”

The Knights took the lead a little more than five minute in thanks to a fortunate bounce.

Alex Tuch’s hard dump-in toward the right corner bounced off the wall toward the slot. Nicolas Roy let the puck go thinking the play was offside, which seemed to confuse the Wild defense, and Nosek swooped in to backhand a shot past Wild goalie Cam Talbot for his fifth goal.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.