No Jack Eichel, no Alex Pietrangelo, no Nic Hague, and yet the Golden Knights still had a chance until the very end.

Despite three late scratches in the lineup prior to warmups, the Knights took the Colorado Avalanche to a shootout before ultimately losing 3-2 on Tuesday night at Ball Arena in Denver.

The point, however, clinched the Knights home-ice advantage for the first round of the NHL playoffs and pushed their lead in the Pacific Division to six points over the Los Angeles Kings with four games to play.

“Every point matters, especially this time of year,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.

Center William Karlsson and defenseman Brayden McNabb scored for the Knights (47-22-9), who earned five of a possible six points during a three-game road trip that started with wins against the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, respectively, in a back-to-back.

Goaltender Akira Schmid, making his second start with the Knights in the past three games since being called up from AHL Henderson, made 34 saves.

“We would’ve liked to get the win here tonight and make the gap a little bit bigger, too, but I think we did a great job the whole road trip,” Schmid said.

Eichel, the Knights’ leading scorer with 93 points, is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Cassidy told ESPN that Eichel has been dealing with the injury for a while.

“We’ll see where he’s at when we get back home,” he said.

The Knights also had to go in with a completely different defense pairing with partners Hague and Pietrangelo out because of illness.

Cassidy said a number of players — including Karlsson, which was confirmed by general manager Kelly McCrimmon on the team’s radio show Monday — are battling some sort of sickness that’s going around the locker room.

Despite that, the Knights got off to a strong start.

Karlsson scored his first goal since Dec. 21, a short-handed goal following a delay-of-game call on defenseman Zach Whitecloud, to make it 1-0 at 11:10 of the first period.

McNabb added to the lead 40 seconds into the second when his point shot beat Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood, thanks to a screen from Karlsson, to make it 2-0.

But the Avalanche, the much healthier roster of the two, got to their game and dominated the second period, outshooting the Knights 19-4 in the frame.

They were rewarded with goals from winger Valeri Nichushkin on the power play at 9:46, then left wing Jimmy Vesey at 17:08 to tie the game 2-2.

“I thought we had a great start the first half of the game. We played well, played our game. We were on over top of them,” McNabb said. “Then they got momentum and got the tides on us.”

The Knights had no response for the relentless offensive pressure by Colorado, something Cassidy noted would be a challenge going in. The task was all that more daunting being down three regulars.

But Schmid stood tall when his team needed him most and secured a point that guarantees Game 1 of the first round will be held at T-Mobile Arena.

Three takeaways from the win:

1. Short-handed dominance

Cassidy has liked the pressure the Knights’ penalty kill has provided the past few games, particularly closing space at the blue line.

Against a vaunted Colorado power play, ranked eighth in the league, the formerly maligned unit of the Knights stood tall. The unit was rewarded with Karlsson’s goal, the team’s first short-handed tally since Dec. 27.

They went into the second period having gone 8-for-8 on the kill to that point.

2. PK run ends on controversy

The ninth attempt on the penalty kill, however, wasn’t anyone’s fault except the replay system.

Schmid robbed Nichushkin with a diving glove save after making an initial pad save.

However, while Schmid caught it with his glove, the puck crossed the goal line. Replay determined the puck clearly crossed the goal line, though video evidence didn’t seem conclusive.

“That first one could go both ways,” Schmid said.

It was a deflating end to what had been a strong stint on the penalty kill throughout the road trip.

The Knights killed all four power plays Saturday in Calgary, then went 2-for-2 in Vancouver on Sunday.

3. Schmid’s finest hour

No blame goes to the backup goaltender for this one.

Schmid was tremendous in his second start with the Knights, playing in place of the injured Ilya Samsonov (upper body).

He made three crucial saves in overtime, with his best coming on a one-timer from right wing Artturi Lehkonen.

Schmid has had a season to forget with the Silver Knights, posting an .886 save percentage while giving up 3.58 goals per game.

This road trip was the closest thing to looking like his early days with the New Jersey Devils, where he made a household name for himself in the playoffs against the New York Rangers in 2023.

The 24-year-old’s start on Saturday was his first since March 5, 2024. The 34 saves were his most since Nov. 30, 2023, when he made 44 against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“After not playing for a while, it’s good to be back,” Schmid said. “At the end of the day, this is where you want to play.”

Schmid was the Knights’ MVP of the trip. It started with his buzzer-beating save on Flames center Mikael Backlund on Saturday to preserve the chance to win.

He almost came through for his short-handed bunch.

“I thought he was our best player tonight,” Cassidy said.

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