3 takeaways: Knights goaltender shines despite shootout loss to Avs

Adin Hill strengthened his case to be part of that tandem with his best performance of the season.

With no offense to speak of in the final 40 minutes and overtime, the Golden Knights’ goaltender did all he could with 33 saves, but it wasn’t enough with the Knights losing 2-1 in a shootout to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

“I felt like I had a good game out there,” Hill said. “It sucks to come away with a loss, but overall, you take away the positives.”

Colorado right wing Valeri Nichushkin, who scored the tying goal in regulation, scored the lone goal in the fifth round of the shootout to snap the Knights’ three-game winning streak.

Right wing Pavel Dorofeyev scored the Knights’ lone goal, but it was Hill that carried the Knights (14-6-3) to a point, ending a season-long five-game road trip with seven of a possible 10 points.

“I thought, overall, it was a great trip,” Hill said. “I think we just had one period in Toronto and one period here where we didn’t play the way we wanted.”

It wasn’t expected that Hill would be involved in a goaltending duel with Avalanche netminder Alexandar Georgiev. The shaky No. 1 goalie for Colorado (13-10-0) was part of giving up eight goals Monday in an 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay.

Georgiev looked off in the first period with his puck management and decisions on when to play the puck. The Knights had ample opportunities to take advantage and put more than one in the back of the net.

They couldn’t do it. Georgiev faced just 19 shots the entire game, and he stopped all five shootout attempts.

Meanwhile, Hill withstood Colorado’s barrage. The Avalanche had an 88-41 advantage in shot attempts and dominated zone time.

“There’s are always some positives,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got a point, and our goaltender was the biggest reason.”

For what the Knights couldn’t do offensively, they made up for it with 28 blocked shots.

The Knights had to rely on their goaltender for the second straight game to get them over the hump. Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves — including 27 of his last 28 — to help the Knights win their first shootout of the season, 5-4 in Philadelphia on Monday.

Hill got off to a shaky start this season. Though he won six of his first eight starts, he allowed at least three goals in six of those starts and has allowed at least four goals six times.

His last five starts: 3-1-1, a .931 save percentage and allowing 1.77 goals against.

“I feel good,” Hill said. “I feel like I’ve been building more confidence and feeling better in the net. The team’s doing a good job in front of me.”

That’s not just the goalie that Canada would need in February — or in the Winter Olympics in 2026. It’s the one the Knights needed on this trip. It started with the Knights getting shut out in Toronto with Hill doing everything he could to keep his teammates in it.

The bookend of the trip was the exact same situation, only this time, the Knights got a point out of it.

The Knights can head into Thanksgiving feeling thankful for the play of their goalies.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

1. Successful road trip

The Knights are still in need of that signature win this season. Maybe it comes Friday against the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets.

But getting seven out of 10 points on their longest road trip of the season is a success. The Knights played a lot of hockey with no practice time, and did so with players rotating in and out of the lineup due to injury or personal reasons.

The Knights can only handle what’s in front of them, and they did that. They’re heading into Thanksgiving in first place in the Pacific Division and with the third-best points percentage in the Western Conference behind Winnipeg and Minnesota.

If there was any concern that the Knights would take a step back after all they lost this past offseason, it’s been silenced for the moment.

2. Colorado’s quick response

Dorofeyev broke the seal at 13:09 of the second period with his team-leading 12th goal of the season. That was supposed to build confidence considering how outplayed the Knights were in the second.

That lasted 33 seconds when Nichushkin converted off a turnover from center William Karlsson and scored in close.

It wasn’t a bad turnover from Karlsson, but rather a quick reaction from Nichushkin to hop on the puck and get a quick shot past Hill.

That goal took the wind out of the Knights’ collective sails, and they couldn’t generate anything else on Georgiev.

“That’s a shift that’s important to keep momentum,” Cassidy said. “If we had been able to limit that and build on the lead, it makes it easier. It didn’t happen.”

3. Fatigue kicks in

The Knights got key contributors back with Karlsson returning after a one-game absence due to the birth of his second child, and Pietrangelo after missing the past three games with an upper-body injury.

But the rest of the group, as Cassidy pointed out, had to be tired closer to the end after a fifth game in eight nights.

“We are tired. I’m not going to lie to you,” Cassidy said. “We’ll probably be tired on Friday.”

The Knights won’t have much time to rest. They play a back-to-back at home against Winnipeg on Friday and Utah on Saturday. They’ll have two days off before another back-to-back — at home against Edmonton on Tuesday and at Anaheim on Dec. 4.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.