ANAHEIM, Calif. – As he dissected an ugly 6-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 on Friday night, Anaheim Ducks forward Alex Killorn used a phrase that should give everyone pause in the Ducks’ dressing room if they hope to continue their surprising playoff story.
“I thought they played well, but I don’t think we brought our best,” Killorn said. “Maybe a little comfortable after the last game. They’re a great team. We just have to have a little bit of a better start and effort throughout the game.”
Killorn finished by stating how Anaheim must be more dialed in for Game 4. That seemed obvious after the Ducks followed up two well-played games in Las Vegas with a total dud on Friday. Another energetic crowd at a busting-at-the-seams Honda Center had nothing to get ramped up over until Beckett Sennecke snapped Carter Hart’s shutout bid in the third period.
By then, the Golden Knights were on cruise control with a 5-0 lead and Mitch Marner had celebrated his first career playoff hat trick. If the Ducks were feeling a little too comfortable about themselves after outplaying Vegas in the first two games and taking a 1-1 split home, they were shaken out of a cozy state in Game 3 after being smacked around by a veteran team that showed the ability to get better as a playoff series goes on.
The Ducks can’t afford to be comfortable – and maybe that’s a good thing for Game 4 on Sunday.
“I think we’re still learning,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. “Still got things like that we’ve got to be better at doing, because we know they’re going to respond. They’re an experienced team. For us, we can’t get too high. Can’t go too low, either. Win or lose, we have to go play our best game in the next game.”
The Knights turned up their physical play in Game 3. Instead of delivering big hits on Ducks players along the glass, as they attempted in Game 2, the Golden Knights chopped at Anaheim with cross-checks and delivered hard bumps that sent the Ducks to the ice.
It was all in the name of slowing a Ducks team that wants to play high-speed hockey.
“We want to get in front of them,” Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “You want to be physical when you can. They’re a team that’s really good in (the) neutral zone and can make a lot of plays. And if you have good sticks and eliminate plays, it goes a long way. We did a good job of that early.”
The Ducks went on the power play 3:33 into the game, giving them a chance to answer Shea Theodore’s goal 66 seconds into the game, on the first shot Dostal faced. But it also gave the aggressive Golden Knights penalty kill another time to exercise its dominance.
The Ducks had one shot attempt — a long-distance try by Cutter Gauthier — on that power play. They gained another one midway through the first when Jack Eichel hooked young center Tim Washe. Leo Carlsson and Mikael Granlund did put shots on net, with Granlund’s redirect in the slot forcing Hart to make a solid save.
But then disaster struck. Marner intercepted Granlund’s pass back to John Carlson and then started a short-handed rush that led to McNabb scoring for a 2-0 lead, on a shot that Dostal won’t be happy with — he got beat far side, to his glove hand.
In Game 2, when the Ducks failed on multiple power-play chances early in the game, as Vegas went on a penalty parade but regained momentum with a strong penalty kill. In Game 3, McNabb’s crushed any headway they had created.
The Ducks are now 0-for-12 on the power play against Vegas, after they chopped up Edmonton’s penalty kill with an 8-for-16 performance in six games. But if they hope to keep this playoff run going into the Western Conference final, they’ve got to make Vegas pay for its aggressive play.
“We had some good looks there, but I think that we’ve got to break through with a funny goal,” Quenneville said. “I think we’ve got to establish more shots. Not the perfect shot or not the perfect way to pass it into the back of the net. I think that you’ve got to get greasy and willing to pay that price on the second and third opportunities, based on having some good looks.”
The Golden Knights are now 26-for-27 on the penalty kill during these playoffs. Utah’s Dylan Guenther, in a Game 3 Mammoth win in the first round, put the only blemish on its record. John Tortorella, who has now coached Vegas to a combined 13-3-1 record between the regular season and playoffs, insisted that there is no correlation between Vegas playing a hard game against the Ducks and his team’s ability to kill penalties.
But if a team has complete faith in erasing penalties, why wouldn’t its players push the edges of physical play — particularly if that’s how they can slow down the Ducks?
“It’s playoff hockey,” Tortorella said. “You’re trying to find areas to take away ice. You’re finishing your checks. Because the penalty kill, to this point, has been pretty good, (but) it doesn’t work like that. We’re just trying to play hard. And we’re certainly not trying to take penalties.
“That’s what playoff hockey is. It’s just playing hard. Playing through people. All teams do it, and you try to keep it between the whistles and stay out of the box.”
When asked if he felt the Golden Knights were targeting Troy Terry or other players with their cross-checks, Quenneville said. “Hey, that’s the game. There’s all kinds of stuff going on all the time. Every shift, there could be stuff going on. They’re just playing the game like … there’s always games within the game. We got to be better at that.”
After Marner scored his backbreaking power-play goal with 4.6 seconds remaining in the first period to start his big night, that was all for Dostal, who stopped five of eight shots. Quenneville pulled him during the first intermission and had Ville Husso play the balance of the game. The coach felt his Ducks had “miles and miles to get ourselves back in that game.”
It was the second time in his postseason that he pulled Dostal. The 25-year-old netminder responded to a rough Game 5 against the Oilers by stopping 65 of 70 shots over the next three games while looking more confident with each game he played. But when he was asked if Dostal will be his goalie for Game 4, Quenneville said, “We’ll see. We’ll see.”
No one around the Ducks should be too comfortable now. Vegas faced a 2-1 deficit against Utah and won the next three games – two in overtime and the third in decisive fashion. Quenneville said the Golden Knights played like an experienced team that knows what to do as a series progresses.
“And they got our attention,” he concluded.
Now, it is on the Ducks to counter and strike back.
“I think that there’s a lesson to take out of today’s game,” Quenneville said. “It’s only going to get harder every single game. Not going to get any easier.”