Golden Knights strive to finish road trip strong, take on Avalanche

They may feel homesick, but the Vegas Golden Knights are rolling so far on their five-game road trip, which they'll wrap up against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night in Denver.

Vegas dropped the first game of the trip but has reeled off three straight wins, including a 5-4 shootout victory at Philadelphia on Monday night. The Golden Knights trailed 3-0 in the second period and pulled even at 4-4 with 8:05 left in regulation before completing the comeback in one-on-ones.

"At the end of the day, it's 3-0, and it's easy to sort of say, ‘Let's move on and get ready for the next one,'" Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "The guys dug in. I didn't think we were far behind with our ability to catch up. We have goal-scorers in the room. ... It was a game we were way too loose to expect to win anything playing like that. Some nights over the course of 82, those happen. We were able to come out on the right side."

Both Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev paired a goal with an assist for the Golden Knights, who played without William Karlsson (personal reasons) and Zach Whitecloud, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Vegas has won five of its last seven despite also missing captain Mark Stone due to a lower-body injury. Stone, who was placed on injured reserve last week, has been out the last nine games.

The Golden Knights have gotten help from winger Callahan Burke, who was recalled before the 3-0 loss to Toronto in the opener of the road trip last Wednesday. The 27-year-old Burke, who had played three NHL games before the recall -- two of those with Colorado in the 2022-23 season -- has a goal and is averaging 11:31 of ice time in four games this season.

The Avalanche had a chance for a perfect road trip but had a clunker at Tampa Bay on Monday night. Colorado had won six of seven, including the first three on the road, before dropping an 8-2 decision to the Lightning.

"I thought we had a great road trip. It just sucks it ended like this," Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. "Everything went in and we couldn't do anything to stop it."

The goaltending was an issue again. Justus Annunen started the game but was pulled after giving up three quick goals. He returned to start the third period and allowed two more on the first two shots he faced.

In between, Alexandar Georgiev wasn't much better and smashed his stick over the crossbar after a goal.

"Listen, they're frustrated," coach Jared Bednar said. "Probably upset with themselves, one another, everyone. I don't blame them for having emotion and not liking the way the game was going."

Georgiev, who has been strong in net after a rough start to the season, will likely get the start in the second game against Vegas. The Golden Knights beat Georgiev and the Avs 8-4 in the season opener in Las Vegas.

Colorado had played well before Tampa, in part because it got healthier. Valeri Nichushkin (suspension), Jonathan Drouin (upper body) and Miles Wood (upper body) returned to add depth to the strong first line.

The Avalanche had been winning even without MacKinnon, their leading scorer (35 points), producing much. He has just two assists in the last five games after tallying 15 in the previous seven.

--Field Level Media