The Golden Knights spent Sunday afternoon chasing shadows and watching pucks fly past them. Ottawa rolled to a 7-1 win on Jan. 25, handing Vegas its second loss of the season to the Senators and completing a 2-0 sweep of the season series. It was their game in four nights.
“Obviously, we were not ready to go tonight,” Captain Mark Stone said after the game. “Sometimes you get kicked in the teeth.”
Vegas at least avoided a shutout when Rasmus Andersson scored his first goal as a Golden Knight in the third, on a night that also marked Pavel Dorofeyev’s 200th career game. The final margin tied the worst regular-season loss by goal differential in franchise history.
Penalty shot, no payoff
Vegas created its best look on a penalty shot and still left the first period empty on the scoreboard.
Officials awarded Mitch Marner a penalty shot at 1:36 after Tyler Kleven held him on a breakaway, but Marner missed. Ottawa answered later when Fabian Zetterlund scored at 9:25, ripping a wrist shot past Adin Hill off a feed from Stephen Halliday to make it 1-0.
The teams finished the period even at 5-5 in shots, but Ottawa owned the early run. The Senators led 5-1 on the shot clock when Zetterlund scored, and Vegas had to push back just to level the period before the late penalties. Then the game tightened late. Officials called Ridly Greig for closing his hand on the puck with 1:37 left, and Ottawa followed with a too-many-men penalty with 14 seconds remaining. As a result, Vegas opens the second with a 5-on-3 for 23 seconds.
Sixteen seconds that broke it
Vegas did not get caved in during the second. It just got buried by the scoreboard.
Ottawa turned two quick strikes into separation, scoring twice in 16 seconds to blow the game open. Dylan Cozens made it 2-0 at 5:51, then Jordan Spence followed at 6:07 to push the lead to three, both goals coming before Vegas could settle the period back down.
The Golden Knights kept enough of the puck to stay close on the stat sheet, but they never found an answer on their chances and Mads Sogaard stayed clean. Ottawa added a late dagger when Halliday scored at 17:50 to make it 4-0, sending Vegas to the room down four despite not getting run out of the building everywhere else.
The third turned into an avalanche
Whatever chance Vegas had to drag itself back into the game vanished in the opening minutes of the third.
Cozens scored again at 1:22 to make it 5-0, then Halliday tipped in his second of the night at 2:05. Nick Jensen followed at 3:56, and Ottawa had turned a bad night into a rout at 7-0 before the period was four minutes old.
Vegas finally broke the shutout when Andersson scored his first goal as a Golden Knight at 15:05, taking a feed from Tomas Hertl. But it was only a dent in the damage as Adin Hill, in his second straight start, kept battling through a third period where Ottawa continued to generate chances and finish.
Ottawa’s six-goal margin tied the worst in regular-season Golden Knights history, and it also gave the Senators a season-series sweep (2-0) over Vegas.
Up next for the Golden Knights
Vegas heads to Montréal to face the Canadiens, 28-17-7, on Tuesday, Jan. 27. That matchup begins at 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PT).
Next, the Golden Knights return home to open a homestand Thursday, Jan. 29, against the Dallas Stars at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST (7 p.m. PT). Dallas enters at 29-14-9 and Vegas is 25-13-12.
Then Vegas continues the homestand Saturday, Jan. 31, against the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST (7 p.m. PT). Seattle enters at 22-19-9 and Vegas is 25-13-12.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
