LAS VEGAS (AP) - Prior to Monday’s trade deadline, Vegas fans were hoping to pry two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators.
After Friday night, they probably can’t wait to see him leave town.
Karlsson had three assists, including one to Alexandre Burrows on his third-period winner, to lift Ottawa over the Golden Knights 5-4.
Burrows, in his first game back from a 10-game suspension, redirected Karlsson’s slap shot from the point shortly after a pair of Vegas goals tied it at 4. Bobby Ryan also had a goal and two assists for Ottawa.
Vegas has lost three straight and fallen to second in the Western Conference behind Nashville after briefly sitting atop the NHL standings. It is the expansion team’s third three-game losing streak of the season. The Golden Knights have never lost four in a row.
The Senators, meanwhile, snapped a five-game skid and improved to 8-18-5 on the road this season. Ottawa also got goals from Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
“We came out with great jump,” Karlsson said. “Our legs were definitely there today, and we were making sure that we made the necessary plays under tight pressure.”
Ottawa outshot Vegas 38-29, becoming just the 10th team to outshoot the Golden Knights on their home ice.
Craig Anderson notched his 18th win by stopping 25 shots. Marc-Andre Fleury had 33 saves for Vegas.
“We wanted to make sure we weren’t going to get outworked by a very hard-working team. That was our number one priority,” Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said. “Our players took this very seriously.”
After opening the season 19-2-2 at home, the Golden Knights are 5-5 in their last 10 in Las Vegas.
The Golden Knights got goals from Reilly Smith, Colin Miller, William Karlsson and Ryan Carpenter.
Outside of Vegas’ top line of Smith, Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault, it was clear the Golden Knights were missing forwards James Neal and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and defensemen Nate Schmidt and Luca Sbisa.
Neal, Sbisa and Schmidt were gameday scratches, while Bellemare remains on the injured reserve list.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re missing skilled guys or talented guys,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “We got out-competed tonight.”
Smith was named the NHL’s Third Star for February after ranking fourth in the league with 20 points in 14 games. He got his 22nd goal just 58 seconds into the game to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead.
Stone, who leads the Senators with 24 points on the road, tied it less than two minutes later when he took Ryan’s pass in front of the crease and slipped it past Fleury.
With Vegas on the power play, Miller’s wrist shot from the point at the 18:22 mark gave the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead, despite the Pacific Division leaders getting just three shots on goal over the first 20 minutes.
The second period was all Ottawa. It knotted the game at 2-all when Stone fired an outlet pass from the bottom of the right circle of his own zone to a streaking Ryan for a breakaway goal.
Duchene scored a power-play goal through traffic, and Pageau potted a one-timer four minutes later for a 4-2 lead.
William Karlsson brought the Golden Knights back when he converted a turnover into his 35th goal of the season. Moments later, it appeared Vegas’ Erik Haula may have tied it, but a rebound off the post bounced away from the line and ended up under Anderson’s pads.
Instead, with 12:03 left, Carpenter used a nifty deke to get around Ryan Dzingel and shot through the five-hole to tie it.
NOTES: Vegas owns a 26-5-1 record when scoring the first goal, and its .838 win percentage when recording the opening mark leads the NHL. But the Golden Knights have lost three straight after scoring first. … Smith is two goals from 100 in his career. … Ryan is four points shy of 500.
UP NEXT
Ottawa: Visits Arizona on Saturday.
Vegas: Opens a five-game road trip at New Jersey on Sunday.
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