Updated Monday, May 4, 2026 | 10:26 p.m.

Pavel Dorofeyev pulled the Golden Knights out from a series deficit in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with his scoring.

The fourth-year veteran wing more uncharacteristically rescued Vegas with his passing to start Vegas’ second-round series.

With five minutes remaining and the score tied in Game 1 against the Anaheim Ducks, Dorofeyev soared down the ice to draw all the attention of goalie Lukas Dostal. Instead of forcing a shot from his favorite spot on the right wing, he strung a pass to Ivan Barbashev on the other side of the net.

Barbashev buried it, lifting the Golden Knights to a 3-1 victory over the Ducks Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.

“Pav made a great play,” Barbashev said in the postgame news conference. “I think he skated by two players and just got it to me basically.”

The victory featured fewer of the dominant stretches Vegas flashed in three straight wins to eliminate the Utah Mammoth in the first round, but the same players emerged as heroes to lead the Golden Knights.

For most of the game, it didn’t look like the Golden Knights would require a second goal. That’s because the explosive chemistry brewing between Mitch Marner and Brett Howden surfaced again.

In the 23rd minute, Marner shook a defender and approached forward in the Vegas’ offensive zone. The other four Ducks converged, shutting down the red-hot Golden Knights forward’s passing lanes to force a contested-at-best shot.   

Or so they thought.

Despite working with only inches of room, Marner threaded a pass to a cutting Brett Howden who tapped in the first goal of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

“He’s an unbelievable playmaker,” Howden said. “He’s not even looking where he’s passing but he knows where everyone is at every time and he makes the perfect pass. I just try to get to the net and he finds me.”

Anaheim didn’t equalize until six minutes remained in the game with center Mikael Granlund ripping a shot through traffic, and Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb’s legs, to finally beat Carter Hart.

Vegas’ goalie had frustrated Anaheim throughout the night with one of his finest performances since joining the franchise.

The heavily-favored Golden Knights failed to control the action as many expected with the Ducks instead applying constant pressure.

But Hart was up for it, stopping 33 of 34 shots on goal.

“He was our best player tonight,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “We struggled to find our game.”

Dostal gave up two scores on 21 shots on goal.

Vegas’ final goal was an empty-netter as Marner flipped the puck several feet in the air from the defensive zone. It carried deep into the offensive zone before trickling into the net.

“I don’t thinkanyone in that locker room is satisfied with that win,” Marner said. “We know we can be a lot better.”

Marner has now scored in two straight contests with a four-game point streak. Howden has found the net in four straight and leads the Golden Knights with five postseason goals.

Marner has gotten the primary assist on all but one of Howden’s scores.

“He’s been talking to me a lot the more we’ve gotten to play together,” Howden said. “The more you learn each other’s tendencies, the easier it makes it. He talks to me a lot — what he sees, what he likes.”

Marner and Howden were two of many Golden Knights that fans could have been frustrated with less than two weeks ago when the Mammoth took a 2-1 series lead.

The former had only two assists in the series while the latter was point-less. But that led to lineup tinkering from Tortorella that saw the two begin to play almost exclusively together.

They’ve brought the best out of each other.

“We keep talking and trying to figure it out,” Marner said.

The same could be said about Dorofeyev and Barbashev, a pair that seem to have found a home between Jack Eichel on the top line. Vegas might not have been satisfied with how it played, but it would have left much more sour if the new Russian linemates hadn’t synced together so quickly.

“We’re fortunate we found a way to win,” Tortorella said. “Some of it was (the Ducks) but we have some things to work on. I’ll leave it at that.”

Goalie play will not be one of the points of emphasis anymore. Some called for Hart to be benched after he gave up four goals in the first 12 shots of a 4-2 Game 3 loss at Utah, but he’s come up with nonstop big saves since then.

A large fraction of his best came during Monday’s game. The Golden Knights could have played better overall, but players like Hart, Dorofeyev, Marner and Howden continued to prove reliable even on a lesser night for the team. 

“They were the better team tonight,” Tortorella said. “I thought as the game went on, we started finding our game but we couldn’t find it completely.”