The Vegas Golden Knights can thank their coach Dominique Ducharme for the point obtained Monday night, in a 5-4 shootout loss against the St. Louis Blues.
But if it wasn’t for a Jack Eichel blunder in overtime, Vegas would have added two points to the bank rather than just one.
Just over a minute into extra time, a brilliant crossfield pass from Mark Stone gave Eichel the chance to score an easy goal into a completely gaping cage.
An easy goal…at first glance at least.
Rather than pushing the puck into the empty cage, Eichel instead redirected the disc to the left of the net and missed a great opportunity to give his team the victory. This blunder eventually haunted the Golden Knights as they suffered the defeat.
A few moments earlier, with 30 seconds left in the third period, the Golden Knights took advantage of Dominique Ducharme’s strategic skills to tie the game and send the game into overtime.
During a timeout, the cameras showed the former Habs head coach giving instructions to the big guns of the Golden Knights with the objective of obtaining the equalizing goal.
-From the next faceoff, Tomas Hertl blocked Brayden Schenn at the faceoff point to allow Eichel to recover a loose puck. The latter then launched a nice passing play towards the blue line by handing the puck to Shea Theodore, then the latter set the table for a goal from Pavel Dorofeyev with a good one-timer.
After his blunder in overtime, Eichel recovered in the shootout by scoring a goal, but he was the only scorer for his team and the Golden Knights suffered the setback.
Jake Neighbors and Schenn beat Adin Hill in the shootout to give St. Louis the victory. Schenn and Neighbors each scored a goal in regulation, while Nathan Walker and Cam Fowler also scored.
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 28 pucks in the victory. It was Binnington’s 17th career shootout victory, moving him past Brian Elliott for first place in team history.
Hertl, Eichel and Brett Howden also scored in the first 60 minutes of play for Vegas.
The Golden Knights have been struggling recently with six losses in their last seven games, including four losses in a row.
