05/07/26 12:43:00
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05/07 00:42 CDT Ducks beat Golden Knights 3-1 and send series back to Anaheim
at 1-1
Ducks beat Golden Knights 3-1 and send series back to Anaheim at 1-1
By MARK ANDERSON
AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) --- Beckett Sennecke, Leo Carlsson and Jansen Harkins scored,
Lukas Dostal came 5.6 seconds from his first career playoff shutout and the
Anaheim Ducks beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Wednesday night to even
their series at a game apiece.
The Ducks head home with the chance to grab hold of the best-of-seven
second-round NHL playoff series, with Game 3 on Friday night. Vegas hopes to
pull off a repeat of its first-round series when the Golden Knights went to
Utah at 1-1 before winning in six games.
"That's not our tradition of playing that type of game, a low-scoring affair,"
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think we've had some stretches over the
course of the season, particularly late. This is the only way you're going to
be successful in playoffs is you've got to win games like tonight. It's going
to take everybody to play these types of games, and I thought everybody
contributed."
Sennecke, a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy that goes to the league's
top rookie, became the fourth Ducks player 20 or younger to score multiple
goals in a postseason.
Dostal saved 21 shots and nearly had his third career shutout, including
regular-season play, before Mark Stone scored a power-play goal in the closing
seconds.
"I always say it doesn't matter how you win or what the score is," Dostal said.
"(A shutout) obviously is the cherry on the top. It doesn't really matter. We
got a ?W' and that's all we really focus on."
Carter Hart made 25 saves for the Golden Knights. Brett Howden's four-game goal
streak ended, as did Ivan Barbarshev's seven-game point streak.
The Golden Knights' penalty kill gave them a chance. They killed all five
penalties, including a stretch of 6:19 in the first period in which the Golden
Knights took four penalties, including a double minor by Jack Eichel for high
sticking. Vegas has killed off 19 straight penalties this postseason and is 24
of 25 overall.
Though Golden Knights coach John Tortorella had no complaints about the PK, he
wasn't thrilled to begin the game with so many trips to the penalty box.
"It screws us up," Tortorella said. "We wanted to try to get a good start and
we're sitting in the box. I think that affects things as you're trying to get
through that first period, but the penalty kill has been fantastic and that was
a key part of the game. We just couldn't make it stand."
But offense again was at a premium for Vegas, and Tortorella adjusted his lines
to try to find some life. Stone moved to the top line, William Karlsson shifted
to the second and Pavel Dorofeyev dropped to the third.
Quenneville found some magic by moving Cutter Gauthier up to the second line
with Mikael Granlund and Alex Killorn. That group had 20 scoring chances to one
for Vegas after two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. They finished
with a 23-5 advantage.
Quenneville also took forward Mason McTavish, who had a goal and three assists
in the six-game first-round victory over Edmonton, out of the lineup. He failed
to score on two shots in the opener of this series.
The Ducks broke through in the second period, controlling play for about six
minutes as Vegas struggled to keep the puck out of its zone. Then finally it
was too much, Jeffrey Viel passing from below the goal line to Sennecke, camped
out in front of the net for the 1-0 lead with 8:37 left in the period.
Troy Terry's backhand pass to Carlsson at 6:36 of the third period made it 2-0
for the Ducks. Harkins added an empty-net goal with 3:30 remaining.
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and
https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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