Vegas looking for road win at San Jose

The Vegas Golden Knights will try to bounce back from their first loss ever on a Fathers Trip when they conclude their two-game trip at San Jose on Sunday night.

Vegas had been a perfect 4-0 with the dads on the road until Thursday's 5-4 overtime loss at Vancouver. Still, the Golden Knights rallied from deficits of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 to get the game into overtime on a Mark Stone goal with 4:20 left in regulation to at least garner a valuable point in the loss.

"Earlier in the year, we didn't really have that killer instinct to come back in a game," said Max Pacioretty, who had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, five assists). "Obviously, we've been feeling better about our game as of late, so being able to claw your way back into a game is a good feeling, but ultimately you want that second point."

Vegas is just 2-6 playing 3-on-3 this season. Dropping points in overtime is a big reason the Golden Knights head into Sunday's contest in a three-way tie for first place with Arizona and Edmonton and not with a lead in a Pacific Division, where the top five teams are all bunched within four points.

"We battled back and found a way to get a big point, but it's disappointing any time you lose," said Vegas coach Gerard Gallant.

With a two-day break in San Jose, the Golden Knights and their fathers found a way to drown their sorrows with a field trip on Friday to three of owner Bill Foley's wineries in the Napa area. The group then spent Saturday night attending the Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers NFL game in nearby Santa Clara and got to go on the field at Levi's Stadium to watch warmups.

Expect the refreshed Golden Knights to be well-focused for Sunday's game with the Sharks, however. San Jose eliminated Vegas in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs last season, rallying from a 3-1 deficit to win the final three games, including 5-4 in overtime in Game 7. The Golden Knights knocked the Sharks out of the playoffs a year earlier in the second round.

"It's always a tough matchup," Vegas forward Alex Tuch said. "We've kind of established a pretty good rivalry with everything that's gone on the last couple of years. Every divisional opponent is huge. It's not a two-point game anymore, it's a four-point game. We want to go out there and get our two points and prevent them from getting any points."

San Jose, which fired head coach Pete DeBoer on Dec. 11 and replaced him on an interim basis with assistant Bob Boughner, have lost eight of their last nine games, including a 5-2 decision to the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

Alex Pietrangelo scored the game-winner with a shot from the right face-off circle at the 11:07 mark of the third period, and St. Louis added a pair of empty-net goals after that. San Jose's third period goal differential for the season fell to minus-24.

"Our focus is on trying to win a hockey game," Sharks captain Logan Couture said afterward. "Our focus is on us right now. ... We've got to figure out how to win hockey games in this room, and we're not doing it right now. It's not fun. But we have another opportunity tomorrow."

"I liked a lot about our game," said Boughner. "It's just we have to figure out a way to win, and right now we're figuring out ways to lose."

--Field Level Media