After having their record season-opening win streak snapped in overtime by the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, the Vegas Golden Knights head to Los Angeles for a Pacific Division showdown with the Kings on Saturday night in the second game of a back-to-back for both teams.Vegas set an NHL record for the best start to a season by a reigning Stanley Cup champion with seven consecutive wins. Then the Golden Knights blew an early 2-0 lead against the visiting Blackhawks, who won it on Philipp Kurashev’s power-play goal with 2:10 left in OT.Although the Golden Knights lost for the first time this season, they still take an eight-game point streak (7-0-1) with them to Los Angeles.Vegas center William Karlsson, who took a tripping penalty on Connor Bedard early in overtime, said when asked if the point streak was still a positive to fall back on, “For sure. We don’t want to lose. We’ve got a game (Saturday), so let’s just focus on that.”It looked as if the Golden Knights would become just the ninth team in NHL history to begin a season with an 8-0-0 record on Friday when Pavel Dorofeyev and Karlsson each scored in the first 3:52 to give Vegas a 2-0 lead.However, Chicago answered with two goals in 79 seconds by Ryan Donato and Bedard to tie it later in the period and then took a 3-2 lead early in the third period on a Taylor Raddysh goal. The Golden Knights tied it on a goal by Shea Theodore midway through the third, setting the stage for Kurashev’s game-winner.Afterward, Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy pointed to his team’s sloppy play that saw the Golden Knights finish with a 14-4 edge in giveaways as well a managing just five shots on four unsuccessful power plays as key reasons for their first loss of the season.”We did not execute at an NHL level for most of the night, and it ended up catching up to us,” Cassidy said. “It happens sometimes, and (today) was one of those afternoons.
After first loss, Golden Knights take on surging Kings
