The Vegas Golden Knights clawed back from a three-goal deficit for the second straight game, but again came up short, falling 5-4 in a shootout to the Washington Capitals on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

Trailing 3-0 early in the second period, the Knights erupted for three goals in a span of 2:40 to tie the game. Nic Dowd, facing his former team, started the comeback with a short-handed goal at 10:38 of the second period. Rasmus Andersson added another short-handed goal 25 seconds later, and Jack Eichel tied it at 13:18.

Mitch Marner gave the Knights their first lead in three games with a power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period. But Washington’s Dylan Strome answered with a power-play goal of his own at 8:04 to make it 4-4. The Capitals went 2-for-6 on the power play.

The Knights (32-26-15) earned a point but remain three points behind the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division. They are 5-10-2 since the Olympic break. “We need two points,” Andersson said. “There’s no sugarcoating it. We need two points.”

Hendrix Lapierre opened the scoring for Washington at 6:06 of the first period. Justin Sourdif added a power-play goal at 1:55 of the second, and Anthony Beauvillier deflected a Ryan Leonard shot at 6:49 to make it 3-0.

Dowd, acquired from the Capitals on March 5 for goaltender Jesper Vikman and two draft picks, stripped the puck from Leonard and beat former Knights goalie Logan Thompson. “It’s not that it was against the Caps,” Dowd said. “I have no ill will to the guys over there. Great group of individuals, just like in here. It just felt good to get on the board and hear the building erupt.”

Eichel finished with a goal and two assists. Andersson had his second multi-point game with the Knights. The Knights pushed their lead over third-place Los Angeles to four points after the Kings lost 6-2 to Utah.

“We’ve got to stick with it,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s too late in the year to sort of change everything. We’re not going to go into a 6-5 game and try and change our whole identity and how we play. We need wins. I understand. It feels like we’re limping along, but parts of our game are really good. We just got to tie it all together.”