Golden Knights use dad strength over Anaheim, kicks off family road trip with win

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Despite a team-record home start, the Vegas Golden Knights haven’t played to full efficiency away from T-Mobile Arena. Turns out, all they needed was an old fashioned family road trip.

Vegas opened up their annual Dads Trip on a winning note with a gritty 3-2 effort over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday at Honda Center.

“The dads, to start. It always gets the juices flowing,” Shea Theodore said about what was missing from previous road efforts. “We just didn’t like our effort at home last game, and sometimes getting on the road, getting a good mentality like that is good. Getting the guys together.

“We have a lot of road games coming up this month. We wanted to start with tonight and get off on the right foot.”

Nicolas Roy tied the game in the first period, Tomas Hertl put Vegas ahead on a power play goal in the second period and Pavel Dorofeyev cashed in on a turnover in the third period for the eventual game-winner.

Lukas Dostal made 37 saves for Anaheim. Brock McGinn and Frank Vatrano scored for the Ducks.

Knights goalie Aidan Hill rebounded from four goals against on 21 shots at home on Monday with a 22-save outing with a first-period goal and late third-period goal to hold on to the victory.

“He’s been a successful goalie in this league, yet he’s still building his resume,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He’s not a guy that’s been around forever. I think it’s important for him to put stuff behind him and pick up the team the next time he’s in there.”

Vegas (10-4-2, 22 points) concludes its two-game Dads Trip at Utah on Friday.

Just over one minute after Anaheim’s opening goal, former Duck Theodore coasted down left wing to the goal line, and as the Ducks defense cheated at the far post to cut off Theodore behind the net, Roy was left wide-open in front. Theodore zipped it to Roy, who finished for the equalizer, 1-1.

Hill maintained the tie score with an ambidextrous sequence early in the second period. The Vegas netminder battled his own rebounds on a leg save, glove save and blocker save.

“I felt good tonight, felt sharp,” Hill said. “They threw a lot of pucks on the net, kind of a lot of weird bounces and that. Felt like a solid game.”

Hill’s heroics wouldn’t go unrewarded, as Vegas struck on its second power play of the game.

The Knights moved the puck around the horn from right wing, to Theodore at the point to Jack Eichel in the left circle. The Ducks coverage rotated to Eichel and left both Roy and Hertl open in front.

Eichel’s shot through Roy’s screen rebounded to Hertl in the slot, who buried it for the lead, 2-1. Eichel earned his 20th assist of the season.

Cassidy changed up the Vegas lines midway through the game to generate some more five-on-five push, and the shuffle paid off in the third period.

Dorofeyev had been bumped up to the top line with Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, and it was the forecheck of the latter two that forced an ill-advised centering pass from Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom.

Dorofeyev pounced and went to the top of the crease for a shot and the rebound, which he put home for 3-1 lead five minutes into the final frame.

“He’s had it,” Cassidy said of the grittier, inside side of Dorofeyev’s game. “That’s why he’s in the lineup, to be honest with you. He’s playing more than some other guys that have been around the league longer, because he has it.”

“That’s why we feel he can move up in the line up, because he can’t just be a line rush player. If you want to score, you have to be willing to get inside sometimes.”

Vegas shut down Anaheim’s second power play of the night, as Hill stymied Anaheim’s three distant shots.

Frank Vatrano scored with 12 seconds remaining–his first goal against a goalie this season for Anaheim’s leading scorer last year–but it was too little too late.

Vegas controlled five-on-five play with a 55.24% share of the shot attempts, but Anaheim held the edge in 5-on-5 scoring chances (27-25) and high-danger chances (11-9).

The Knights are 2-0-0 against Anaheim this season.