Golden Knights snap losing skid; Jack Eichel leaves with injury
Despite what the scoreboard said during their recent slide, the Golden Knights insisted they were playing better than the results indicated.
The offense, which struggled since the start of 2022, began showing signs of life. And the details were there defensively, even if the goaltending wasn’t.
The payoff came Thursday, as the Knights snagged a much-needed 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers in front of an announced crowd of 18,265 at T-Mobile Arena.
“I think especially the last two games we started to play better defensively,” Nicolas Roy said. “Obviously, confidence was a little bit tougher there but we kept going and we kept pushing. I think we played a detailed 60 minutes tonight from everybody. Contributions from everybody. It was good to get the win.”
The Knights snapped a franchise-record, five-game losing skid and remained the second wild card ahead of Dallas based on points with 19 games remaining.
Roy pounced on a turnover to score the go-ahead goal on a breakaway with 6:37 remaining in the third period, and Evgenii Dadonov scored twice in the second period against his former team.
Brett Howden also scored during the first period in his return after missing the past seven games with an undisclosed injury. The goal was Howden’s ninth, matching his career high set with the New York Rangers in 2019-20.
William Karlsson added an empty-net goal with 1:50 remaining, his first goal in 16 games.
However it wasn’t all positive for the Knights, as center Jack Eichel blocked a shot late in the second period and did not return because of an upper-body injury.
“He didn’t come back, so obviously that’s not good,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’ll get evaluated and we’ll know more hopefully in the morning.”
Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. Thompson grabs opportunity
Goalie Robin Lehner went on Twitter on Thursday to deny a report that he sustained a broken patella and could miss the remainder of the season.
“No (sic) true. Again …,” he wrote.
The timeline for Lehner’s return isn’t clear, as he’s also reportedly nursing a torn labrum in his shoulder. In the meantime, Logan Thompson was handed the start against the league’s top offense with DeBoer searching for someone to solidify the Knights’ iffy goaltending.
Thompson was briefly shaken up in the first period when Carter Verhaeghe crashed the net. He came up with a big stop on Sam Bennett during a second-period breakaway moments before Dadonov’s second goal.
In the third period, Thompson turned away Mason Marchment to keep the score tied 30 seconds after Sam Reinhart converted on a power play to make it 3-3 at 12:26 of the third period.
“Just didn’t want to get scored on again,” Thompson said.
Thompson finished with 33 stops and may have earned another start Saturday against Los Angeles.
“Obviously it’s a big team win and it’s a big win for the goaltending department,” Thompson said. “I know I haven’t been great. Every goalie coach in their mom’s basement has let me know that, and I hold myself accountable and owed it to the team to give us a chance to win.”
2. Dadonov steps up
It can’t be easy for Dadonov right now, as he’s become a target for the Knights’ scoring struggles. That’s on top of the difficult geopolitical circumstances the Russian is dealing with behind the scenes.
“I’m OK,” Dadonov said. “Maybe the first few days, but now I’m OK.”
After falling short of expectations for a $5 million forward for much of the season, Dadonov is starting to heat up at the right time.
He notched his second multi-goal game of the season and has three goals in his past six games to boost his total to 14.
Dadonov put the Knights ahead 2-1 at 5:38 of the second when he cut to the middle and fired a shot past Panthers goalie Spencer Knights.
The Knights went up 3-1 at 14:32, as Dadonov deflected a shot six seconds into a power play.
“We needed that,” DeBoer said. “We need some guys to step up here the last 20 games that maybe we haven’t asked to score every night. Daddy is one of them.”
3. Defenseman debuts
The Knights are so thin on defensemen that they signed Derrick Pouliot to a one-year contract and inserted him in the lineup against the league’s top-ranked offense (4.10 goals per game).
Pouliot hadn’t appeared in the NHL since Nov. 30, 2019, with the St. Louis Blues. He picked up an assist on Dadonov’s first goal for his first point in more than three years.
The former first-round pick appeared in 42 games with the Silver Knights, posting 19 points (two goals, 17 assists) to go with 36 penalty minutes.
Defenseman Nic Hague (undisclosed) was scratched, and Daniil Miromanov made his ninth career appearance after being recalled.
Alex Pietrangelo bumped over to the left side, as the Knights had a surplus of right-shot defenseman in the lineup.
“I think we’re now 10 or 11 defensemen deep into the organization, so it’s really taken a toll,” DeBoer said. “We’ve run out of left shots, so that was a priority and (Pouliot has) played 200 NHL games.
“He’s got that composure that you can stick him in this time of year against a team like that and he’s not going to feel overwhelmed. We needed him.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
