Ducks suffer fourth loss of long home stand to Vegas Golden Knights

ANAHEIM, Calif. - It's been a miserable six-game home stand for the Anaheim Ducks who lost fourth of five games on Wednesday night.

The Ducks (5-8-2) allowed the Vegas Golden Knights (10-4-2) to have three different scorers in their 3-2 loss at home. Anaheim had one score late in the first and third periods, while Vegas was able to maintain consistency across the ice all night long.

Anaheim closes the home stand against Detroit on Friday.

"I think we worked really hard. I think sometimes we make little mistakes that cost us," Ducks left winger Brock McGinn said. "We gotta come in every day and find a way to win games here."

The Ducks struggled to keep any offensive momentum going into the third period as Las Vegas had more shots on goal at 39-24. A struggle the Ducks have faced all season as they now rank 29th in the NHL for lowest shot percentage at 8.4%.

Brock McGinn had the Ducks' first goal of the game with less than three minutes remaining the in period.

McGinn’s goal came almost near the front of the net knocking a Golden Knights defender down. Brett Leason went around the net and passed the puck to Pavel Mintyukov who fired the puck towards McGinn and McGinn bounced the buck into the Vegas net for the score.

"We came in just trying to get pucks in behind them and work together to try and get them back and I think we did a good job at getting on their (defense) quick and supporting each other."

With less than a minute left in the first period, Vegas tied the game at one as Shea Theodore passed the puck to Nicholas Roy. Roy went ahead and immediately shot the puck to the Ducks and got a quick score. Theodore and Cole Schwindt earned assists on the play.

In the second period, Las Vegas was on the power play after McGinn was sent to the penalty box for high sticking during the first six and a half minutes.

The Golden Knights needed just 15 seconds to take the lead for the first time in the game. Tomas Hertl earned the goal after Jack Eichel fired a slapshot towards Lukas Dostal. The puck bounced off the net but Hertl was able to sneak it past Dostal to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.

Eichel and Theodore were awarded assists on the play.

Ducks Captain Radko Gudas said he believes as the season is going, they are growing and finding their identity as a team.

"I think we're growing. I think we're finding an identity in this group right now. I think we're working hard every single day," Gudas said. "If we can just come out and keep doing that I think we'll find it."

With just three seconds left in the second period, Anaheim earned their second power play of the night. Going into the third period, the Ducks failed to score, limiting their chances in the game.

With just five minutes of play in the third period, Vegas had their third goal of the night on an unassisted goal by Pavel Dorofeyev. Dorofeyev who has been on fire for Las Vegas to start the season now has nine goals on the year.

"We weren’t getting the same energy and one of the things that we’ve got to do and it seems to be a common theme, is we just got to get pucks down there with net traffic," Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. "That’s an area that we are preaching as a coaching staff and presenting in practice with drills."

The games last goal came within the last 12 seconds of regulation from Frank Vatrano. 

Anaheim elected to keep goalie Lukas Dostal in the game despite having an opportunity for to have a six on five matchup. The Golden Knight's were able to pass the puck behind the net and gave Anaheim zero opportunity to even attempt a shot within the last seconds of the game.

"I thought we were matching the speed and the intensity and the game kind of went a little sideways when we started turning the puck over," Cronin said. "I don't think they were intentional turnovers, there were some whiffs, there were some passes that went over blades that went right to their guys. They got too good of a team to give them those opportunities in front of our net."