3 takeaways from Knights’ loss: Slow start too much to overcome vs. Flames

The game getting away from the Golden Knights hasn’t happened often this season.

But they fell behind early Saturday night at Scotiabank Saddledome and had no answer for the onslaught from the Calgary Flames in a 6-3 loss that snapped their eight-game point streak.

It’s only the third regulation loss in 17 road games for the Knights, but they dropped to 2-6-3 when trailing after the first period.

Reilly Smith scored for the first time in 12 games, and Kaedan Korczak added his third goal of the season.

Captain Mark Stone scored a power-play goal with four minutes left in the third period to cut the deficit to 5-3, but the Knights couldn’t get any closer. Calgary forward Jonathan Huberdeau scored into an empty net in the final minute.

“What you’ve seen out of this team is poor starts and great finishes all year,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “As a coach, you’d rather it be that way than the other way around. But we need to start better. We need to fix that part.”

Akira Schmid tied a season high with five goals allowed, only the second time he’s yielded that many as the Knights’ starter.

Calgary goalie Devin Cooley finished with 33 saves. Captain Mikael Backlund scored twice and had an assist, and center Connor Zary and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar had three assists each.

The Flames (15-17-4) won for the sixth time in eight games.

It was the second straight game the Knights played without center Jack Eichel (illness, lower body) and defenseman Shea Theodore (upper body).

Neither traveled with the team, meaning they’ll miss Sunday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers on the second leg of a back-to-back.

It’s the first time the Knights lost to the Flames in three meetings. They won the first two matchups by a combined score of 10-3.

1. Starting slow

It was ugly from the get-go.

Pucks were bouncing. Ice conditions didn’t seem great. Neither team could get into a rhythm.

That was, until an offensive-zone turnover from the Knights sprung the Flames the other way. The counterattack ended with Backlund scoring on a rebound 3:54 in to make it 1-0.

“We mismanage a puck and we give up a goal early because of it,” Cassidy said. “We got the original save, but we didn’t box out.”

Calgary scored three times in the first.

“I think they forechecked us hard,” defenseman Jeremy Lauzon said. “They wanted it a little bit more than we wanted, it felt like.”

Smith’s goal at 10:03 cut the Calgary lead to 2-1 despite the Knights being badly outplayed midway through the opening frame.

Smith said breakouts were the issue, especially coming out of their own zone. His goal was the benefit of a poor line change from Calgary.

“I think we weren’t playing as a group of five,” Smith said. “We were leaving each other out to dry a little bit.”

Momentum disappeared five minutes later when Calgary left wing Ryan Lomberg finished a two-on-none to restore the two-goal lead.

Calgary added two more goals in the second with Backlund’s second at 8:38 and left wing Joel Farabee scoring shorthanded at 12:21 to make it 5-1.

“I felt like we tried to play a little bit too fancy,” Lauzon said. “Especially on the road, sometimes you need to muck games, and that was a game that we needed to just play simple and play hard.”

2. Schmid barreled over

Calgary’s second goal came with some controversy.

Flames right wing Adam Klapka was credited with the goal at 8:42 to make it 2-0, but he came across the crease and collided with Schmid in the process.

The puck crossed the goal line after the contact, so goaltender interference couldn’t have been called. Otherwise, the goal would’ve come off the board.

But the Knights didn’t challenge, nor did they appear to get any explanation from the officials as to why they didn’t get a power play after the goal.

Schmid shook off the contact after staying down for a few seconds, but the nightmarish start didn’t get any better for him.

It was the first time in December the Knights lost in regulation, and fortunately for them, they didn’t lose their goaltender in the process.

3. No time for rest

There won’t be any time to ponder this one. The Knights are back at it with a 5 p.m. PT start against the Oilers at Rogers Place on Sunday.

Carter Hart, who grew up in the Edmonton area, will get the start in net.

Connor Ingram will likely start for the Oilers after Calvin Pickard allowed four goals on 36 shots Saturday in a 5-2 loss at Minnesota.

The Knights would like to carry what they did in the third period over to Sunday. They outshot the Flames 21-5 in the third, but only got the one goal.

“I’m hoping that we’ll be the team that finished the game more than started it,” Cassidy said. “That’s something that’ll be reminded again. As a coach, you’re sort of like, ‘Do we have to revisit this again?’ And as the players, do they want to hear it again? Just own it. Just freaking own it and let’s move past it. Correct it and build our game that we’re capable of doing.”

Up next

Who: Golden Knights at Oilers

When: 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta

TV: KMCC-34

Radio: KFLG (94.7 FM/1340 AM)

Line: Oilers -135; total 6