{"id":659550,"date":"2026-05-09T09:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T09:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/659550\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T09:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T09:33:08","slug":"mitch-marners-first-playoff-hat-trick-propels-vegas-golden-knights-to-rout-of-anaheim-ducks-and-2-1-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/659550\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch Marner\u2019s first playoff hat trick propels Vegas Golden Knights to rout of Anaheim Ducks and 2-1 series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Mitch Marner<\/a> had three goals and an assist in his first career playoff hat trick, and the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> routed the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> 6-2 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in their second-round series.<\/p>\n

Shea Theodore<\/a> had a goal and an assist and Brayden McNabb<\/a> scored a short-handed goal as the Golden Knights stormed to a 5-0 lead after two periods, silencing a sellout crowd in Orange County and erasing memories of their rough offensive outing in Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur desperation level definitely got higher,\u201d Marner said. \u201cI just like the way that we came out and started. The first 10 minutes really, we just played our game and got to it, and that’s something we were missing the first two games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter Hart<\/a> made 30 saves as Vegas moved halfway to the Western Conference finals while sending the upstart Ducks to the worst loss of their first postseason in eight years.<\/p>\n

Game 4 is Sunday night in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Marner got his natural hat trick in the first two periods, giving him six goals in the past four games of his first playoff run with his new team. The longtime Maple Leafs forward delivered Vegas\u2019 first four-point playoff performance since 2019 and prompted a few hats to be thrown onto the ice when he slipped his third goal under Ville Husso<\/a> with 2:04 left in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Marner) is very confident in what he brings,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “People give him (grief) all the time about playoffs, and this and that, and I don\u2019t think it bothers him a lick. He just plays. He\u2019s a hockey player, and I\u2019m glad he\u2019s doing some things for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marner’s three goals were more than he scored in last spring’s entire 13-game playoff run with Toronto, where the Ontario native frequently got criticism for not delivering in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always nice to try to contribute, but at the end of the day, you just want to win games,\u201d Marner said. \u201cThere’s been a lot of different moments so far in this playoffs that people have stepped up and made big plays. Tonight, (there were) a lot of great plays by people around me to set me up in a spot where I could succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckett Sennecke<\/a> and Chris Kreider<\/a> scored in the third period for the Ducks, who got embarrassed in their team\u2019s first home game in the second round since 2017. Kreider’s goal was the 50th of his playoff career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they played well, but I don’t think we brought our best,\u201d Ducks forward Alex Killorn<\/a> said. \u201cMaybe a little bit comfortable, in all honesty. They’re a great team. We just have to have a little bit of a better start and effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lukas Dostal<\/a> gave up three goals on eight shots in a rough first period before Husso replaced him. Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said he wasn’t sure whether Dostal would start Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were desperate. They were hungrier,\u201d Quenneville said after his team\u2019s first home playoff loss of the spring. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lesson to take out of today\u2019s game, and it\u2019s only going to get harder every single game. … They play like they\u2019re an experienced bunch and they know what is necessary as you progress in a series. They got our attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vegas captain Mark Stone<\/a> didn’t play in the third period after apparently incurring a lower-body injury in the first period. Tortorella declined to give details.<\/p>\n

Theodore, Anaheim’s first-round draft pick in 2013, put Vegas ahead 66 seconds after the opening faceoff with his 20th postseason goal.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old McNabb then scored the third short-handed goal of his 14-year NHL career, and Marner capped the Knights’ stellar first period with his fourth playoff goal on a power play. Marner tapped in a pass from Theodore midway through the second.<\/p>\n

Brett Howden<\/a> put his sixth playoff goal into an empty net with 1:56 left.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nhl<\/p>\n

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Mitch Marner had three goals and an assist in his first career playoff hat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-659550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}