When it comes to skating against the Vegas Golden Knights of late, the Anaheim Ducks are a confident bunch.
The Ducks flew home to Southern California from the Mojave Desert with a 3–1 victory over Vegas to even up their best-of-seven, Round 2 postseason series with the Golden Knights 1–1. This is the same score registered on Monday at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, but in the series opener, it was the Golden Knights that came away with the win.
Anaheim, which has missed qualifying for the postseason over the past seven NHL seasons, finished the regular season as the third seed in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division. After a scoreless first period in Wednesday’s game, the Ducks were first to get on the scoreboard in the second period. Beckett Sennecke gave Anaheim a 1–0 lead at 11:23 with a wrist shot getting past Vegas’s goalie Carter Hart. Sennecke’s tally was assisted by Jeffrey Viel and Ryan Poehling. The score remained 1–0 entering the third period.
The Ducks punched through with two unanswered goals in the final period before Vegas scored its only goal of the night. Leo Carlsson, at 6:36, found the back of Vegas’ net. His goal was assisted by Troy Terry and Chris Kreider. Anaheim continued with the shutout with an unassisted goal by Jansen Harkins making it a 3–0 score at 16:30 in the final period. With just seconds left in regulation time, at 19:54, Vegas put up its only score on the night. Vegas captain Mark Stone broke up Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal’s bid for a shutout. Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore assisted with Stone’s goal.
In an ESPN.com report on Thursday, Dostal said shortly after Wednesday’s game that winning, regardless of the score, is all that matters.
“It doesn’t matter how you win or what the score is. [Shutouts] are always the cherry on the top, but it doesn’t matter. We got the W,” Dostal said.
Dostal, 25, who made 21 saves in Game 2, recorded no shutouts in 56 games during the regular season. His record for the 2025–2026 regular season is 30–20–4. It was during the 2021–2022 season that Dostal debuted for the Ducks.
In Monday’s 3–1 Vegas victory, it was the Golden Knights’ Ivan Barbashev who scored the go-ahead goal at 15:02 in the third period. Vegas won the game despite Anaheim besting them with 34 shots-on-goal as opposed to 22 for the Golden Knights. For a second consecutive game, the Ducks outshot Vegas. Wednesday night’s matchup saw Anaheim have a 28–22 advantage in putting pucks on net.
In an NHL.com report on Thursday, Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville offered praise for his team’s win.
“That’s not our tradition playing that type of game, a low-scoring affair,” Quenneville said. “We’ve had some stretches show over the course of the season, particularly as of late, this is the only way you’re going to be successful in the playoffs. You got to win games like tonight. I think that we showed that it’s going to take everybody to play that type of game.”
Quenneville, who is second all-time among NHL coaches with wins (1,012), was hired in May 2025 by Anaheim to replace the fired Greg Cronin. Cronin had coached the Ducks the previous two seasons. Out of the NHL since October 2021 after resigning as the Florida Panthers coach, Quenneville returned to hockey with a roar. The Ducks accumulated 92 points in 82 games.
Vegas, like Anaheim, has a new coach behind their bench this season. With just a few games left to play in the regular season, Vegas dumped its coach Bruce Cassidy, who only three years earlier led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup championship. In the final eight regular season games, new coach John Tortorella led Vegas to a 7–0–1 record. Tortorella’s wake-up call to the team he just took over resulted in the Golden Knights winning the Pacific Division title, and finishing fourth among the 16 teams that comprise the Western Conference.
“There were some really good minutes. Some minutes that we’re just not there,” Tortorella told NHL.com on Wednesday after the 3–1 game. “I have full trust we’re going to find our way and try to play our best game. That certainly hasn’t happened yet in the series, but we’ll find our way and get there.”
Tortorella came to Vegas with a Stanley Cup title on his resume. In 2004, in his fourth season at the helm of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tortorella’s roster defeated the Calgary Flames in seven games to hoist the Cup.
This was the first time Anaheim swept a season series with Vegas. This series is also the first time Anaheim and Vegas are meeting in the postseason.
Friday’s Game 3 in Anaheim at Honda Center has the puck drop scheduled at 9:30 ET. Game 4, set for Sunday, is also scheduled to start at 9:30 ET in Anaheim.
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
