(KTNV) — Short-handed in goal, the Vegas Golden Knights lost their Stanley Cup rematch vs. the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
In the first meeting of the two teams since the game that brought the Golden Knights their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, the Knights came up short, falling to Florida 4-2 on the road.
It was a highly physical matchup at Amerant Bank Arena that saw multiple players sent to the penalty box for fighting.
In an eventful but scoreless first period, the gloves came off (literally) in an on-ice throwdown between Knights defenseman Keegan Kolesar and Panthers' Ryan Lomberg.
Team captain Mark Stone would deliver the Golden Knights their first point of the game in the first 90 seconds of the second period. Sam Bennett would go on to tie the score 1-1 with a little over 10 minutes left to play. A Gustav Forsling slap shot would put the Panthers in the lead for the first time, leaving the Golden Knights with less than five minutes left in the period to answer.
And answer they would, with a wrist shot from Pavel Dorofeyev in the final seconds of the second, tying the game up with 20 minutes left to play.
In the final period, a series of penalties would give Florida the power play advantage and allow the Panthers two more points in frustrating fashion for Golden Knights fans.
An interference call sent Knights defenseman Ben Hutton to the penalty box, opening up the ice for a power play goal from Panther Carter Verhaeghe.
A little over a minute later, Zach Whitecloud would end up in the box. Florida's Sam Reinhart would seize the opportunity to lengthen the home team's lead to 4-2 over the VGK.
Emptying their net in the final minutes of the game wouldn't be the hail mary the Golden Knights needed to re-gain control, and the tension wouldn't let up with an imminent Panthers victory on the horizon.
The final seconds of the third period saw an all-out brawl between both teams that started with a dust-up between Alex Pietrangelo and Matthew Tkachuk and ended with the Panthers' Sam Bennett railing fists on William Karlsson.
As the clock ran out, officials would call a misconduct penalty on Pietrangelo, Karlsson, Tkachuk, Bennett and Florida's Aaron Ekblad.
Palpable frustration emanated from the Golden Knights as they left the ice with no way to answer the Panthers' show of force.
The Knights will have three days to cool off over Christmas weekend before they face the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, the last of a four-game road trip. That game starts at 7 p.m. on Vegas34 and KnightTime+
