Tomas Hertl has been the hottest Golden Knights skater the past five games.
Not many teammates have seemed to get the memo in that stretch, which has become the team’s worst this season.
Hertl had two goals and an assist, but the Knights tied their season high with their third consecutive loss, 5-3 to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Saturday.
The 31-year-old Hertl extended his season-high point streak to five games (four goals, five assists) in what’s been his best stretch in his first full season with the Knights.
It’s just come at a time when the Knights, as a whole, have played their worst hockey.
The Knights found themselves in an insurmountable hole for the second time in as many days, falling behind 3-1 after 20 minutes despite scoring the game’s first goal.
It was too deep to crawl out of. The Knights (29-14-3) lost a third straight game for the first time since losing from Oct. 15-19 and lost for the fifth time in six games, all while being swept on their three-game road trip.
“You’re never going to be better than the other team for 60 straight minutes,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Victor Olofsson scored the 100th goal of his career, but goaltender Ilya Samsonov was on the hook for all five goals allowed on 23 shots.
The Knights got the kind of start they wanted, but they couldn’t sustain it yet again.
Olofsson connected on a one-timer from the right circle at 9:29 of the first to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.
Then, the game flipped.
Chicago (15-28-3) scored three times in the final four minutes of the opening frame. Lukas Reichel and Tyler Bertuzzi scored 40 seconds apart, and Taylor Hall added a late goal in front with 18 seconds left in the period to make it 3-1.
“The breakdowns we had cost us too much,” center William Karlsson said.
The Knights couldn’t find the equalizer Friday when they found themselves down two against the Carolina Hurricanes. They got it this time, thanks to Hertl.
The center scored for the third time in four games at 8:10 of the period when he received a stretch pass from defenseman Shea Theodore, cut inside and snapped one by goaltender Petr Mrazek to make it 3-2.
Hertl tied it 3-3 at 14:42 when he deflected a Theodore point shot on the power play, giving him his third multigoal game of the season.
The second period was the kind of wake-up call the Knights needed, as they outshot Chicago 17-3 and controlled play.
The Blackhawks’ third shot of the period was the backbreaker, with defenseman Seth Jones sniping one off a turnover from the right dot with 1:02 left in the frame to give Chicago a 4-3 lead.
Bertuzzi added his second power-play goal of the game 4:08 into the third to restore the two-goal lead at 5-3.
“We gift-wrapped a few of their goals,” captain Mark Stone said.
The Knights have made it a habit of never being out of games. Even when falling behind 4-0 to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday and 3-1 to Carolina on Friday, they found a way to claw back.
But the Knights were already behind the 8-ball playing the second night of a back-to-back.
The Knights will never use that as an excuse. If that’s the case, there’s no clearer sign of how bad a slump is than losing to the team with the fewest points in the NHL.
“We have to go home and get back to the drawing board,” Stone said.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
1. Another late penalty
The Knights, for the second straight night, committed a penalty with the goaltender pulled.
Stone was called for slashing while the Knights were trying for a last-minute push while holding a six-on-five.
The Knights committed a too-many-men penalty while trying to get goaltender Adin Hill to the bench while trying for the tying goal against Carolina.
2. Theodore stays hot
A solid stretch during this run has come from Theodore, whose two assists gave him a season-high four-game point streak (one goal, five assists).
Theodore, with 39 points in 45 games, is one point shy from a sixth consecutive 40-point season.
3. No time for rest
The Knights lost a third straight in regulation for the first time this season.
There’s not a lot of time to figure out how or why. They’re off Sunday, then face the St. Louis Blues at 3 p.m. Monday at T-Mobile Arena.
Cassidy mentioned before the trip that the Knights will have to play through their struggles with not much practice time allotted. That’ll be the case at least through next week.
Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
