{"id":483863,"date":"2026-10-03T11:46:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/483863\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T11:46:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:46:33","slug":"ducks-survive-season-opener-in-vegas-turning-4-goal-lead-into-1-goal-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/483863\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks “survive” season opener in Vegas, turning 4-goal lead into 1-goal win"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Despite embarking on a newly expanded 84-game season, the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> were the 31st team of the NHL\u2019s 32 to open up the 2026-27 season on Friday, but they made the wait well worth it.<\/p>\n

Anaheim scored three goals in a 2:36 span across the first and second periods and charged out to a 4-0 lead to cruise in their season opener over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n

Beckett Sennecke scored the first goal of the season on an all-world stretch feed from Leo Carlsson, who collected two points on the night. Alex Killorn and Jeff Malott scored on tips, and Carlsson cleaned up a rebound off the rush for the 4-0 lead in the second period.<\/p>\n

Eleven different Ducks found the scoresheet against the team that ended their first Stanley Cup playoff appearance in eight seasons back in May.<\/p>\n

Vegas quickly clawed back and swung momentum with two goals in 1:29 the third period, as Shea Theodore\u2019s goal was upheld on review, and Tomas Hertl scored on the ensuing power play for Anaheim\u2019s failed offside challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said the puck was out, and that\u2019s what we were concerned about,\u201d Joel Quenneville said, \u201cbut they said they tagged up. We got a look at it. I hadn\u2019t looked at that part of it. My fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vegas cut the deficit to just one goal with 2:50 remaining, and despite a desperation scramble sequence in the final 30 seconds, the Ducks survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst game of the season. Get out with a win,\u201d Carlsson said. \u201cA little bit tighter than we wanted at the end. We expected a push, but we won the game, so it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anaheim (1-0-0, 2 points) returns to Orange County for the home opener on Sunday against former captain Radko Gudas and the Florida Panthers to kick off a two-game home set.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of Anaheim\u2019s first line made total sense on paper when it first took to the practice ice on Wednesday. No. 1 center Leo Carlsson was flanked by leading goal-scorer Cutter Gauthier, as the Ducks went to their top guns for the top line.<\/p>\n

Would Beckett Sennecke join them to totally load up? Maybe first-round pick Nikita Klepov would make his debut, after sliding in seamlessly during the preseason?<\/p>\n

Neither got the nod, as new addition AJ Greer made his surprise appearance on the line, and the next day and into Friday\u2019s morning skate and season opener.<\/p>\n

Greer made his name as a grinder with the Florida Panthers, and while he hit career highs while playing up in the line-up for an injury-decimated Panthers squad last season, he\u2019d been generally thought to be a bottom-six addition for Anaheim.<\/p>\n

While praising Greer\u2019s energy and inside grit, even the line\u2019s architect Joel Quenneville wasn\u2019t totally sure what he had made.\u201cI’m curious to see how he’s gonna handle it as well,\u201d Quenneville said Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Well, what Quenneville put together was Anaheim\u2019s best line of the night, as the trio dominated early shifts, earned 72.66% of expected goals at five-on-five and each collected a point in their first game of the season.<\/p>\n

Greer took on the dirty work on the forecheck, while Carlsson and Gauthier used the space to open up their speed for more chances and their own forecheck battles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can keep up with them and create space for them off the rush,\u201d Greer said. \u201cThey’ve got a lot of poise with the puck, great IQ. Cutter’s got an amazing shot. Leo’s got amazing hands and can make a play through anything. So, I go to the net. I got to create space for them and make sure that I’m doing my role and playing physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlsson made a spectacular play without his linemates to end the first period. He fired a tape-to-tape outlet pass from his own face-off dot to the far blue line past all five Golden Knights on the ice to spring a Beckett Sennecke breakaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so tired, so I didn\u2019t really think much,\u201d Carlsson said. \u201cJust saw him all alone. Just tried to pass it as hard as I could, and it ended up being perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the second period with a 3-0 lead, Gauthier pounced on a turnover at center ice and pushed the pace with Greer on a two-on-one. Gauthier took the shot, which was stopped, and Greer followed up on the rebound, which required a sprawling save from the Vegas netminder.<\/p>\n

However, the goalie slid out of his crease, and with the puck sitting at the top of the blue paint, Carlsson swooped in to slam home Anaheim\u2019s fourth of the night.<\/p>\n

Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l Sets the Tone<\/p>\n

While the Ducks bolted out on the strength of their offensive determination, the four-goal lead came in tandem with a foundational performance in net from Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l.<\/p>\n

After a subpar regular season by Dost\u00e1l\u2019s standards and a playoffs he\u2019d like to put behind him, Dost\u00e1l set the tone for Anaheim early.<\/p>\n

The Czech Olympian made a humongous post-to-post stop on the Ducks\u2019 first penalty kill of the game, and ahead of Carlsson\u2019s outlet pass for Sennecke\u2019s goal, Dost\u00e1l slammed the door shut on another jam play into the crease.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so good,\u201d Carlsson said. \u201cHe keeps us in games every time. Huge shout for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vegas had generated just over 1.6 expected goals in all situations through two periods, where Dost\u00e1l had made 17 saves to that point to keep the Knights off the board.<\/p>\n

For his heroics, Dost\u00e1l credited the young blue line in front of him.\u201cI\u2019m proud of our group, because I thought our guys were unbelievable,\u201d Dost\u00e1l said. \u201cI honestly felt like we played a simple game. We simplified. We didn\u2019t make anything harder than we had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Anaheim and Dost\u00e1l\u2019s 163-game search for their first shutouts since the season opener of the 2024-25 season (Oct. 12, 2024) would continue, as Vegas got on the board early in the third period.<\/p>\n

Shea Theodore would beat Dost\u00e1l cleanly through some bodies for the first, and after the failed offside challenge, Tomas Hertl scored on some lax netfront defense on the ensuing power play.<\/p>\n

With three minutes to go, Dost\u00e1l couldn\u2019t cover a puck that Brandon Bowman would pot to cut the lead to one, but the 26-year-old came up when it counted in the final minute.<\/p>\n

Vegas got several whacks in a desperate goalmouth scramble in the last 30 seconds of the game, but Anaheim\u2019s shot blockers and Dost\u00e1l made the lead hold up for the first win of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those where we survive,\u201d Dost\u00e1l said.<\/p>\n

Just one day after inking a six-year, $7.2 million-per-season deal that had many outside of Anaheim asking, \u201cwho is Tristan Luneau,\u201d the 22-year-old Ducks blue-liner played a career-high 26:58 of ice time, was not on the ice for a goal against and Anaheim earned 58.3% of the expected goals while Luneau was on the ice at five-on-five. The NHL will get to know Luneau soon enough.<\/p>\n

Noah Warren made his NHL debut and earned his first NHL point on a shot tipped in by Alex Killorn early in the second period. Warren played just 9:33 of ice time, but Anaheim earned 78.23% of the expected goals at five-on-five with Warren on the ice. \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Warren said Friday morning. \u201cI feel proud of myself, and I think I’m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judd Caulfield also made his NHL debut on Friday and played 13:17 of ice time in a fourth-line role.<\/p>\n

Sennecke scored for the second consecutive season opener, making him just the fourth player in Ducks history to do so following Rickard Rakell, Andrew Cogliano and Rob Niedermayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Despite embarking on a newly expanded 84-game season, the Anaheim Ducks were the 31st team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,1720,1718,401,1716,5498,896,100,404,47799,1722,8614],"class_list":["post-483863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-beckett-sennecke","tag-cutter-gauthier","tag-hockey","tag-leo-carlsson","tag-lukas-dostal","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-tst-las-vegas","tag-tst-los-angeles","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483863","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=483863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}