Knights' win streak ends at five in shootout loss to Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. — Carter Hart was supposed to get Tuesday off. Instead, he was back in goal for the Vegas Golden Knights following his backstopping the team to a 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers Sunday.

Of course, that meant overtime. Or, in this case, a shootout.

Unlike his previous two appearances in the Vegas net, this one took longer than usual but didn’t end as well for Hart and the Knights as they were unable to score in four rounds of the shootout and fell to the New York Islanders 5-4 as Emil Heineman scored the game-winner.

The Isles swept the season series from the Knights, both wins coming after regulation had concluded.

Yes, it’s a point on the road and one any team would covet. But for Vegas, it’s the ninth time this season they failed to earn the second point in either OT or the shootout.

And when they had a man advantage in OT after Kyle MacLean was in the penalty box for high-sticking Brett Howden with three seconds left run regulation, Bruce Cassidy went for the W, using four forwards — Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev. But they were denied by Ilya Sorokin, who per usual, kept his team in it.

“We’ve got to find a way to make that work,” Cassidy said of the four-forward power play unit. “That’s something we have to look at.”

Everyone believed Hart’s next appearance would come Thursday in Philadelphia against his former team, the Flyers. And in the aftermath of Tuesday, it’s unlikely he’s going to play three straight games. So look for Akira Schmid Thursday.

The Knights were going for their fifth straight win overall and third in a row on this Metropolitan Division road swing. And it looked like they were on their way got doing that as they had a 2-0 first-period lead over the Islanders. But the Isles always seem to play Vegas tough and Tuesday was no exception. They scored three unanswered against Hart and the Knights, though they gave up a pair in the third, one to Ivan Barbashev, the other to Dorofeyev with 14 seconds left in regulation.

Barbashev’s goal was as amazing as it was lucky as he reached with his stick for the puck and with one hand managed to knock it past Sorokin to tie the game 3-3 1:27 into the third.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever scored one like that,” he said of what was his 11th of the season.

But the Isles, scrappy as they are, can also be a bit lucky. They were on a third-period power play when Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore broke his stick. He was unable to get another twig and it essentially became a 5-on-3 situation. Bo Horvat, who has had a tremendous season so far, capitalized to give his team a 4-3 lead and it stayed that way until the waning moments when Dorofeyev cashed in with Hart on the bench for a sixth attacker.

So why was Hart even in this game?

“We talked to Carter about the week ahead and that’s the plan we came up with,” Cassidy said. “We have two more this week and each will play one so we’ll go from there.”

Obviously, Hart’s return to Philadelphia and the circumstances by which he left the Flyers will be the cause for much scrutiny and commentary over the next 48 hours.  Schmid, who last played five days ago in New Jersey against his former team, will likely be in goal Thursday with Hart playing Saturday in Columbus.

Tuesday, he played fairly well, stopping 23 of the 27 shots he faced. It wasn’t his best effort to date but he wasn’t terrible either.

Overall, it was the second straight game the Knights didn’t play their best hockey in the second period, a problem that has cropped up numerous times this season.

“I think it’s hard, especially on the road when you come away with the lead in the first period you just have to handle that push teams are going to bring,” said defenseman Noah Hanifin. “We knew they were going to do that. But we were probably better in the second period than we were in the last game. When we run into trouble, it’s usually self-inflicted, which means we can fix it. We just have to focus on things in the second period, the long change, things like that.

“But five out of six points on the road trip so far, that’s a positive. Battling back again in the third period and getting the goal 6-on-5, that was huge. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done in overtime but definitely some positives to take away from the game.”