Golden Knights derailed by slow start in Game 1 loss to Jets

WINNIPEG -- The Vegas Golden Knights were living a nightmare that they had put their first two opponents through in winning eight of their first 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
In Game 1 of the Western Conference Final, the home crowd at Bell MTS Place on Saturday was rabid, a visceral, intimidating force. On the ice, the Winnipeg Jets used a combination of size and speed to defeat the Golden Knights 4-2.

RELATED: [Complete Jets vs. Golden Knights series coverage]
For the first time in the postseason, the Golden Knights are trailing in a best-of-7 series after sweeping the Los Angeles Kings and defeating the San Jose Sharks in six games.
"We are going to see what kind of team we are," said forward Jonathan Marchessault, who made an ill-advised pass and a bad change to help set up the opening goal by Dustin Byfuglien. "It's a must-win next game. As a group, when you are moving on in the playoffs, everybody needs to step up."
Game 2 is here Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Vegas, which had home-ice advantage in each of the first two rounds, had scored first in seven of its 10 playoff games.
Byfuglien took a drop pass from Mark Scheifele and unloaded a slap shot that was past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury before he could react to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead.
With Alex Tuch in the penalty box for hooking, Jets forward Patrik Laine scored on a one-timer from the left circle at 6:49 to make it 2-0.
Forty-six seconds later, a shot from Ben Chiarot bounced off the skate of Joel Armia and into the net for a 3-0 lead. It was immediately waved off by referee Kelly Sutherland for goalie interference, but video review determined there was no interference and the call was overturned.
"We came out flat-footed and they came out flying," said defenseman Deryk Engelland, who was on the ice for each of Winnipeg's goals. "We knew they were going to. I think we maybe sat back and watched a little too much and they took it to us."
Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb cut the lead to 3-1 at 8:10, but Scheifele made it 4-1 on the power play at 9:54 of the second. William Karlsson brought Vegas within 4-2 with a power-play goal at 15:55.

The Jets were 2-for-4 on the power play.
Winnipeg was less than 48 hours removed from an emotional and physically demanding 5-1 win against the Nashville Predators in Game 7 of the Western Conference Second Round. The Golden Knights had been off since winning Game 6 against the Sharks on Sunday.
Yet the Jets were the fresher -- and faster -- team for much of the game, particularly the first 20 minutes.
"We should've been jumping a little bit more," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. "You know they were going to come out hard and play a hard game. They just finished a seven-game series. I thought they competed hard and they were ready to play. We just weren't hard enough."
Fleury, who leads the playoffs (minimum 11 games) with four shutouts, a 1.74 goals-against average and .943 save percentage, allowed four goals on 26 shots.
The crowd chanted his name incessantly during stoppages of play and yelled for his backup, Malcolm Subban, but Fleury seemed unfazed by the hostile reception.
"It's fine, I have been through it before, the good side and the bad side of it," he said. "I'm not too worried about it."