Vegas Pulls Away From Utah HC With Dominant Third Period

After riding high from their first ever pre-season win at a raucous Delta Center, the Utah Hockey Club learned a hard lesson Friday night:

High risks don't normally mean high rewards, especially against a championship-caliber team.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored the tie-breaking goal at 6:17, and Keegan Kolesar added another just 29 seconds later as the Vegas Golden Knights handed Utah their first pre-season loss, 5-2, at the T-Mobile Arena.

"The puck management is probably the number one thing," head coach Andre Tourigny said. "We didn't have our execution; we didn't make plays."

However, Utah's power play still showed glimpses of its deadliness, as Michael Carcone opened the scoring with the club's fourth power-play goal of the pre-season, before Ryan McGregor potted his first-ever pre-season goal to give Utah a 2-1 lead.

But Jack Eichel scored his first pre-season goal and opened the floodgates for a four-goal avalanche that buried Utah in the third period.

It was also aided, as Tourigny said, by lackluster puck management; Utah had 27 giveaways and turned it over 8 times to Vegas.

Utah still had their chances, but the stout Vegas defence blocked 17 shots on the night, while holding their opponents to just 16 shots total on goal.

"(Turnovers) lead to a lot of lost momentum and frustration," Tourigny said. "It's a good lesson to learn and to be a little more mature in our decisions."

Related: Matias Maccelli Talks About Utah HC's Power Play, Expectations For Tonight vs. Vegas

Related: Training Camp Nightcap: Takeaways From Utah HC's First Two Pre-Season Games