March 6, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel (9) leapfrogs Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) during the second period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvani-Imagn Image For the first time in a little over two months, the Vegas Golden Knights will be in action looking at the Pacific Division standings when they host the Edmonton Oilers in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
Vegas, which has held a spot atop the Pacific Division every day since Jan. 3, fell one point behind the Anaheim Ducks in the standings after a 4-2 loss to the visiting Minnesota Wild on Friday night, and the Ducks followed up with a 6-5 shootout win over Montreal.
It was the fourth loss in the last five games for Coach Bruce Cassidy’s team, which also fell behind 3-0 at one point for the fourth time in the last five games.
Minnesota scored three goals in three minutes, including two goals 18 seconds apart in the second half, to take a 3-0 lead. Pavel Dorofeyev cut the lead to 3-1 early in the third quarter on Jack Eichel’s 30th goal, but Vladimir Tarasenko sealed the win with a goal with 4 minutes, 18 seconds left.
“A lot of it is the same,” Cassidy said. “We’re behind, we’re having a bad stretch, one (goal) turns into two, turns into two, turns into three. We’ve got to be better than that.”
“It’s unfortunate that they took that time to monetize it, and suddenly we’re chasing games again,” Eichel said. “Let’s get back to plan and get ready for Sunday.”
Eichel, a key cog on the U.S. team that won Olympic gold in Italy, has recorded just two assists in five games since returning and is a minus-5 in plus/minus. Dorofeyev made up for some of his struggles by scoring four goals after the break, becoming the first Golden Knight in franchise history to record back-to-back 30-goal campaigns.
“We’ll try to fix some things (Saturday) and be better on Sunday,” said Cassidy, who had optional practice on Saturday. “We’ve got a good offensive team coming here. They’ve had some of the problems we’ve had because they’ve had a hard time keeping the puck on net. But I think it’s less about Edmonton and more about us right now.”
Edmonton enters Saturday’s game in third place in the Pacific Division, four points behind Las Vegas, but is one of six teams that have clumped together in the standings while fighting for the division’s three guaranteed Western Conference playoff spots.
The Oilers are 2-3-0 since the Olympic break and have been bleeding, allowing 22 goals in that span. Edmonton visited Carolina on Friday and lost 6-3. Goaltender Tristan Zariri continued to struggle, allowing five goals on 31 shots, the third time he has allowed five goals in a game in his last four starts.
“Nobody wants to score,” said forward Zach Hyman, who scored two goals. “We’re not trying to go out and score five goals every night. There’s an effort to get better. We’ve talked about it and it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it and doing your job and trusting the other guy to do his job.”
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said his team needs to find answers quickly before the unthinkable happens to Connor McDavid and company. They missed the playoffs.
“Obviously we have to find it and get the win,” Knoblauch said. “We’ve only got 19 games left and we’re on the verge of not making the playoffs. We can’t wait to find our game in the playoffs because we ultimately have to get there. We’ve got to find another gear.”
This is the second of four meetings during the regular season. Behind two goals and an assist from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, host Edmonton jumped out to a 4-0 lead and won the first matchup 4-3 on Dec. 21.
–Field level media
