Graney: 3rd-period magic doesn’t show up in Golden Knights’ loss

It wasn’t meant to be this time.

The third-period magic never materialized.

For it, the Vegas Golden Knights were outplayed on Tuesday night and paid for it with a 3-2 loss to Utah in Game 2 of this best-of-seven first-round series in front of 17,871 at T-Mobile Arena.

Things are now tied at a game apiece and headed to Salt Lake City for Games 3 and 4.

This thing isn’t ending any time soon.

Fact: The Mammoth were the better team. They were certainly the better team over a final 40 minutes, having outshot the Knights 23-11 those last two periods.

The Knights were really good in the opening period and then lost their way.

Speedy Mammoth

They had won so many games this season in the third period, you felt it was inevitable things might go the Knights’ way again. But the speedy Mammoth kept pressure on, a truth punctuated by their game-winning goal.

That’s when Dylan Guenther got around Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, recovered and found Logan Cooley in front with six minutes remaining.

“We had decent looks,” Knights forward Mitch Marner said. “We have to do maybe a better job of sustaining pressure.”

Sort of like Utah did.

“I know they’ve been doing it all year long,” Knights coach John Tortorella said of winning games in the third. “You’d like to think it’s resiliency. I think we showed a little bit of that in (Game 1). How it transpired during the year, I wasn’t here. It’s not a great recipe to chase as many games as the team has, so hopefully we can try to stay away from that in the playoffs here.”

They were tied at 2-2 entering the third so the only chasing going on was over those final six minutes. But it was enough for Utah to hold on and head home with a split.

One thing is for sure: Tortorella hasn’t over-coached the Knights thus far. Doesn’t believe in it, especially having taken over the team on Mar. 29. Especially given the veteran room he now oversees.

And it makes sense.

The Knights have a great leadership group, guys who have been through the ups and downs of the playoffs, who have won, who know how to win and self-correct when needed.

Who know how to bounce back from such a defeat.

That’s not to say emotion — no matter how many veterans dot the roster — isn’t needed in any playoff series, including this one. Managing those emotions becomes more than significant. It’s a big part of the postseason.

“It’s a whole different type of intensity,” Tortorella said. “Everything has to be raised, your emotion level, everything. Just your appearance, how you carry yourself, everything has to be raised.”

It certainly was on Tuesday. The teams combined for 16 penalty minutes alone in the first period, as many as there were total in Game 1. Both the Knights and Mammoth had 17 hits over the first 20 minutes.

It was 1-1 after one because Mark Stone tallied his second power-play goal of the series for the Knights and defenseman Rasmus Andersson couldn’t get his stick out of the way of a loose puck, inadvertently knocking it past teammate and goalie Carter Hart for a Utah score.

Credit then Ivan Barbashev with a beautiful move to tie things at 2-2 in the second when the Knights forward forced a turnover, walked in and scored with the backhand.

That set up the third period.

And we know what happened there.

Turn the tide

“They are a fast team,” Knights forward Brett Howden said. “I thought we played our game for the most part in the first half and then got away from it.

“They had a push, which we knew they would. They are a good team and we knew it wouldn’t be easy. We have to get more play in the offensive zone.”

The third period arrived in a 2-2 tie and you thought maybe, just maybe, the Knights could turn the tide of a game Utah was controlling. It has happened all season.

It wasn’t meant to be this time.

Tied series. And it should be.