SALT LAKE CITY — You won’t find many locker rooms that feel better after not just losing a game. But one when they trailed 4-0.
The Vegas Golden Knights, however, are looking on the bright side.
“I thought we took a step forward in how we have to play from Game 2,” coach John Tortorella said.
That 3-2 loss at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday was still there for the taking for the Knights. The Utah Mammoth got to their game in the final half thanks to their speed.
Utah didn’t need its speed in Game 3. It took four goals on the Mammoth’s first eight shots in 29 minutes for a 4-2 win and a 2-1 series lead for the league’s newest team.
But the Knights came out of Friday feeling encouraged by what it did over the course of the game.
They liked that they neutralized Utah’s speed for the most part. How they held the Mammoth to just 12 total shots. Overall, in Tortorella’s eyes, the Knights did make improvements over the course of the game.
“We gave up 27, 28 scoring chances (in Game 2). That certainly didn’t happen tonight,” Tortorella said. “It’s a series (of) ebbs and flows. I liked a lot of our minutes tonight.”
Upon first glance
This could all change when Tortorella wakes up Saturday and reviews the film.
He felt the first period of Game 2 was really good. The next day, he felt there wasn’t much to like.
The goals they gave up could change his tune.
The first goal could be viewed as a bad bounce off Carter Hart that he should have saved, but it didn’t help that no one accounted for Mackenzie Weegar jumping over the boards and no one covering him at the right circle.
Dylan Guenther’s power-play snipe to make it 2-0 earned a simple assessment.
“No one’s stopping Guenther’s shot,” Tortorella said. “That’s just a bomb.”
Both of Lawson Crouse’s goals in the second period should’ve been avoided.
The first came after Jack Eichel lost an offensive-zone faceoff. Crouse skated down the middle of the ice with only Rasmus Andersson shielding him, and his tip beat Hart.
The second was a result of a turnover from Shea Theodore. Crouse took the pass from captain Clayton Keller and had too much room in the slot.
Between falling behind the Mammoth feeding off the energy for their first home playoff game, the hill was too steep to climb.
The Knights controlled play in the first 10 minutes, outshooting the Mammoth 10-1.
“We knew it was going to be a good environment, and the crowd was going to be in it,” Eichel said. “We wanted to come out and try and establish our game early. I thought we did that.”
A voice of reason
They did do that early. The rest of the game left a lot to be desired.
The Knights went 0-for-4 on the power play in a game where they outshot the Mammoth 32-12. They’ve scored two goals in back-to-back games, and only five players have scored a goal in the series.
Two of those goals have come from fourth-line center Nic Dowd — the shortest-tenured player on the team who has suddenly become the one to put everything in perspective.
“I think there’s a reason why it’s a seven-game series and not a one-game playoff or a three-game series, right?” Dowd said. “You’re not going to win every single game. You do the math — you could lose 12 and still win a Stanley Cup. It’s one game. We’re on to the next game.
“I think we can take a lot of positives out of this game. We can go back and look and correct some things, but overall, I thought we played well.”
Dowd reinforced the belief that the best teams are the ones that play the most consistent toward the end of the season. That those are the ones that will be successful at the end of the year.
The belief doesn’t change with the outcome of one game, he said.
“I think at any point, if someone thinks that we don’t got this, there’s an issue,” Dowd said. “I’ve only been here a short time. I haven’t seen that at all.
“Eighty-two games is a hell of a long season. To stay consistent and put yourself in a position to have home ice and play well in the playoffs is what they did. The belief is strong with this group and we have a veteran group.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
