Sharks give up late goal, beaten by streaking Vegas
Count the Sharks as the latest victims of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Thanks to Chandler Ste- phenson's pinpoint pass, William Carrier had a wideopen net and scored with 17.7 seconds left Thursday night to give Vegas a 2-1 victory over San Jose and extend the Golden Knights' winning streak to four games.
Paul Cotter scored the other goal for Vegas, and Adin Hill made 26 saves.
Hill outdueled San Jose's Kaapo Kahkonen, who stopped 36 shots and was tested by the Knights going on the power play seven times. Vegas failed to capitalized on any of its chances against the NHL's fourthranked penalty kill.
“I don't want to go down that path, but you'd be hard pressed to find a hockey game where one team takes seven penalties and the other only takes one,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “Frustrating, but give our penalty kill a ton of credit. They did a hell of a job. Our goalie was outstanding.
“I thought it was his (Kahkonen) best game of the year, and I'm just real disappointed we weren't able to finish it off the last 17 seconds.”
The Knights have their own reasons to be frustrated, having converted just one of their past 28 power plays. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said the team has been working to get more interior chances with the man advantage rather than rely on outside shots.
“I think that's just a mindset that we have to keep chipping away at to get the interior plays so that you're able to open up passing lanes,” Cassidy said. “We'll keep grinding away at it.”
The problems in that area included failing to score on three power plays in the first period, even with six shots with the man advantage and outshooting San Jose 14-4 overall.
San Jose shut down the Knights' offense in the second, not allowing a shot on goal over the first 11 1/2 minutes.
The Sharks then got it done on the offensive end when Alexander Barabanov scored off a rebound with 2:56 left in the period to take a 1-0 lead.
Vegas nearly tied it 1:26 into third period, but Jonathan Marchessault's power-play goal was waved off because the referee determined he pushed Kahkonen's pad over the line.
The Knights finally broke through five minutes later when Jack Eichel fed Cotter for a 2-on-1 breakaway to tie it. That extended Cotter's goal streak to three games, and Eichel has five points (two goals, three assists) in those three games.
Then Carrier won the game late, and the Knight continued their domination of San Jose, leading 20-2-4 all time.
ISLANDERS 5, PENGUINS 4 >> Zach Parise scored the tiebreaker late in the third period and Brock Nelson added two goals as New York edged Pittsburgh on Friday .
Anders Lee had two goals and an assist, Ilya Sorokin finished with 40 saves, and the Islanders snapped a three-game skid that included two overtime losses. Mathew Barzal added two assists.
Rickard Rakell scored twice and Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist as the Penguins lost for the second time in three games.
BLACKHAWKS 4, SENATORS 3, OT >> Andreas Athanasiou scored at 2:52 of overtime to lift Chicago over Ottawa.
The Blackhawks overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period, tying it with 3:05 left on Patrick Kane's second goal of the game. The goal was Kane's 1,217th point, giving him the third-most points among U.S.-born players.
Petr Mrazek made 28 saves to help Chicago snap a three-game losing streak.