a decisive Game 6 closeout<\/a> and Vegas finished a theretofore close series with a convincing victory of its own over the Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\nSeason Series<\/p>\n
Though Vegas wore the divisional crown for the fifth time in nine years of existence and will host the best-of-seven affair, the Ducks swept the season series. They went 3-0-0 and won each decision by an identical 4-3 score. Two November matches reached overtime, one in each team\u2019s building, before the Ducks won in regulation at home on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
The Ducks had six players who scored a point per game or better against Vegas. Troy Terry and Jacob Trouba each had five points in the three clashes, while Leo Carlsson notched four in the two tilts in which he participated. Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l occupied the net for two of those victories while the injured Petr Mr\u00e1zek (hip surgery) picked up the third.<\/p>\n
For Vegas, Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev and Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl were their top producers against the Ducks in 2025-26. Akira Schmid tended goal for two of the meetings and Adin Hill backstopped the Knights in the third. In this series, the Ducks will face Carter Hart not only for the first time all year but for the first time since Jan. 4, 2022. He was then a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, a relationship that ended after he was charged and later acquitted in a sexual assault trial involving five Canadian U20 players.<\/p>\n
Behind the Bench<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll also be the Ducks\u2019 first showdown with the always intense and often theatrical John Tortorella, who replaced 2023 Stanley Cup champ Bruce Cassidy as Vegas\u2019 head coach with just eight games left on the schedule. They went 7-0-1 under his guidance to finish above both the Ducks and Oilers in what had been an airtight divisional race.<\/p>\n
Vegas is Tortorella\u2019s sixth different coaching gig and his fifth since winning the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. For now, his deal only runs through the conclusion of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Ducks have plenty of pedigree on their side, with the second-winningest head coach of all time in Joel Quenneville. His four Stanley Cup rings, three as a head coach, made him a coveted commodity after his own reinstatement (both he and Edmonton GM Stan Bowman presided over a separate sexual assault scandal in Chicago). In Round 1, he pushed all the right buttons, stabilizing a wobbly finish to the regular season and getting the most out of his group nearly to a man.<\/p>\n
Special Teams Tale of the Tape<\/p>\n
During the regular season, Vegas had the league\u2019s sixth-best power play and thus far it has had the postseason\u2019s fifth-best conversion rate at 20%. Though the Ducks were below the median, ranking 23rd during the year, they have been No. 1 with a bullet since the reset, cashing in a whopping 50% of their man-advantage opportunities in Round 1.<\/p>\n
Vegas also had the sixth-best penalty kill statistically, ramping up to third and a 93.8% clip in the playoffs. The Ducks\u2019 penalty kill was at 76.4% during their 82-game campaign, 27th of 32 teams. They\u2019ve been at 71.4% in the postseason, but started 6-for-6 and didn\u2019t take a single penalty in Game 6.<\/p>\n
With the extra attacker, the Ducks scored the second most goals this year, trailing only the goalie-pull-happy New York Islanders. That was part of them being the NHL\u2019s top come-from-behind club in terms of multi-goal rallies, third-period comebacks and overall circling of the wagons. Vegas had nine 6-on-5 goals in addition to the second most overtime losses and fourth most OT games this season, as well as two more overtime results in Round 1.<\/p>\n
Schedule<\/p>\n
The Anaheim Ducks vs. the Las Vegas Knights second-round playoff schedule:<\/p>\n
Game 1: Monday, May 4 \u2013 Anaheim at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 2: Wednesday, May 6 \u2013 Anaheim at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 3: Friday, May 8 \u2013 Vegas at Anaheim, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 4: Sunday, May 10 \u2013 Vegas at Anaheim, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 5: Tuesday, May 12 \u2013 Anaheim at Vegas, TBD, if necessary<\/p>\n
Game 6: Thursday, May 14 \u2013 Vegas at Anaheim, TBD, if necessary<\/p>\n
Game 7: Saturday, May 16 \u2013 Anaheim at Vegas, TBD, if necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks will start Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by trying their luck on the Vegas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,404,127,136],"class_list":["post-297334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}