Golden Knights continue to struggle, lose to Oilers

Danny Webster, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Mar 9, 2026

Published in Hockey

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The Vegas Golden Knights played one of their better 60-minute games in recent memory. They played the kind of game you want to have against the Edmonton Oilers.

But the Knights could only muster two goals against the leaky Oilers defense and lost 4-2 to their Pacific Division rivals Sunday at T-Mobile Arena.

The Knights (29-21-14) dropped to 2-5 since returning from the Olympic break.

“I thought we played well tonight,” forward Brett Howden said. “I thought we were engaged. We were in the fight. There were a lot of shifts we were rolling over.”

They’ve since fallen out of first place in the Pacific Division. Their hold on a top-three spot is also hanging by a thread. They lead the Oilers by two points with 18 games remaining.

Noah Hanifin and Jack Eichel scored, and Mitch Marner had two assists, but despite one of the Knights’ better end-to-end games recently, they still didn’t have an answer.

The Knights controlled play in nearly every offensive metric, especially at 5-on-5 — 56-37 in shot attempts, 28-22 in scoring chances and 2.62 expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“Had a lot of chances. Just seems to be, right now, we’re not getting those tough bounces,” Hanifin said.

The Oilers scored twice on fortuitous bounces. Edmonton winger Trent Frederic scored on his own rebound 3:21 into the second after goaltender Adin Hill got tripped, scrambled on his back and couldn’t get up in time.

Hanifin tied the score with a point shot at 13:09.

After the Knights won an offensive-zone faceoff, no one recovered the loose puck to allow winger Vasily Podkolzin to burst through and tuck home a breakaway at 2:34 of the third for a 2-1 Edmonton lead.

Then came the dagger via a broken stick.

Oilers center Leon Draisaitl scored on a 4-on-4 with 8:07 remaining after Rasmus Andersson’s stick broke and the Knights couldn’t clear the zone twice.

Draisaitl got the puck deep near the crease and finished a backhand through Hill’s five-hole.

Three goals, all because the Oilers made the right play at the right time. The Knights didn’t have enough time to make one more.

Eichel scored a short-handed goal with 3:16 left to give the Knights a chance down 3-2, but Oilers winger Kasperi Kapanen scored into an empty net with 1:57 remaining.

The Knights visit the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. Dallas is on a 12-game point streak (11-0-1).

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