The Vegas Golden Knights will play their third road game in a four-night span when they face the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.
Vegas, three points behind the first-place Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division, has collected three of a possible four points on its Eastern road trip.
After a 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday to open the trip, the Golden Knights rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Penguins on Tuesday. It was just Vegas’ second victory in nine all-time games at Pittsburgh.
Tomas Hertl scored two power-play goals for the Golden Knights, including the game-winner with 34.1 seconds remaining on a nifty cross-crease pass from Mark Stone. The tally came shortly after Vegas killed off a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:22 and did not produce a Penguins shot on goal.
“I would describe it as a grind,” Golden Knights coach Ryan Craig said. “We got some big penalty kills. We got a couple of goals on the power play. Our goaltender (Adin Hill) battled. There was some desperation there, and a little bit of luck. But we got through it. And we’ve got three points so far on the trip.”
It was just the second win in the past seven games (2-3-2) for the Golden Knights. Craig hopes his players can build on their strong start to the trip when they meet the Red Wings.
“(You’d) hope that the last two nights would galvanize our group,” Craig said postgame. “There’s a come-from-behind to get a point there. Tonight was a grind but they stayed together. … They find a way to get three out of four points to start a trip. So for me, we’ll take that with us to Detroit and build off it.”
The Red Wings, tied for the lowest point total in the Atlantic Division, have alternated wins and losses over their past four games.
Detroit returns home after splitting a back-to-back set in the Sunshine State. The Red Wings opened the trip with a 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday but fell behind 3-0 in the first 29 minutes against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in a 4-2 loss.
J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist and Lucas Raymond also scored for the Red Wings, who pulled within 3-2 on Compher’s power-play tally at 5:29 of the third period. Tampa Bay’s Ryan McDonagh sealed the win with a long empty-net goal with one second remaining.
“We just came out really slow,” Raymond said. “We weren’t moving our feet enough. We weren’t executing on plays. Kind of just got us caught behind the play all the time, and they just came over us wave after wave.”
Detroit coach Todd McLellan said, “Obviously, we were the second-best team. We would have been the third-best team if there were three playing. Not a lot of jump or pop right off the bat. … Real tough start for us, but on the bright side, it didn’t look good, but we found a way to claw back there.”
After the Thursday game, the Red Wings head back on the road for four games, starting Saturday night in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche. The Golden Knights conclude their four-game trip Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres.