LAS VEGAS – There were so many unusual things about the Anaheim Ducks’ first-round playoff series victory–high-octane games filled to the brim with constant comebacks, which were the norm for Anaheim all season–that when a true Stanley Cup Playoff-style series broke out in Ducks’ second-round match-up with the Vegas Golden Knights, these are the games that have felt like anomalies.
Expected or not, Anaheim has been the dominant aggressor through six periods in Vegas, and finally in Game 2 on Wednesday, the Ducks struck a thorough chord to earn their first notch in this series.
Anaheim shutout Vegas through 59:54 of the requisite 60 minutes with smothering defensive speed and a sellout performance by Lukás Dostal and the defensive corps, and the Ducks battled their way to breakout goals from Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson to take Game 2, 3-1, and even the series, 1-1.
The Ducks now head home after a necessary road split looking to convert their run-of-play advantage into a series advantage in Game 3 on Friday at Honda Center.
“It’s not our tradition of playing that type of game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Low-scoring affair when we score first and we’re leading throughout. I think we’ve had some stretches over the course of the season, particularly late that this is the only way you’re going to be successful in playoffs is you’ve got to win games like tonight.”
“One of those games you’re pretty satisfied with, but it’s only going to get tougher.”
Despite not capitalizing on over six minutes of consecutive power plays in the first 10 minutes, including a nearly full five-on-three advantage–Anaheim went 0-for-5 on the night and sits at 0-for-9 in the series after converting 50% of their first-round advantages–the Ducks dominated time of possession at all strengths to completely control play.
At five-on-five per Natural Stat Trick, Anaheim earned 68% of the shot attempts in the first period and 90% of the expected goals and 60.7% of the shot attempts in the second period and 56% of the expected goals.
“We know they're physical, but we can play that game, but I think the way to beat them is just outpacing them,” Ryan Poehling said. “It's not just with speed, it's how we play, you know, right up. You guys are supporting one another, and you saw that tonight. When we get in that rhythm, and take quick shifts, it's a hard team to play again.”
It was only with under seven minutes remaining in the game that Vegas finally started to dig into that Ducks play advantage. With Anaheim leading, 2-0, and the Knights on the power play, Dostal made a handful of key saves and saw his penalty killers dive all over the ice and sacrifice their bodies to deny Vegas only until the game’s final ticks.
“I don't think anybody cares,” Jacob Trouba said of the narrative that the high-flying Ducks couldn’t play defense. “I think we just play our game and we think we've improved as the season's going on. We had, obviously, lulls or stretches where we haven't played as well, and we've learned from it, and we're picking a good time here to play our best hockey.”
Dostál and the Ducks were just 15 seconds and a face-off away from their first shutout in 170 total games and the team’s first playoff clean sheet since the 2016 first round, but Vegas punched in a power play goal with six seconds remaining.
Still, Anaheim notched the victory and closed out six periods in Sin City, where the Ducks were almost inarguably the better team in all 120 minutes of play–save for one rogue uncalled icing late in Game 1.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dostal said of losing the shutout so late. “It’s still one win in the series. I always say it doesn’t matter how you win or what the score it. Obviously, it’s always the cherry on top, but it doesn’t really matter. We got the W, and that’s all we focus on.”
As Poehling alluded to, the Ducks have controlled play through two games by controlling the pace of the game and utilizing their speed. Game 2 showed that that speed isn’t just for getting out on the attack, but Anaheim is employing it to apply pressure in all three zones and all corners of the ice.
“That’s a testament to our forwards, I think,” Trouba said. “Kind of the same way as us breaking the puck out. (The defensemen) get the puck up that first opportunity. It kind of goes back on them, and our forwards get in, and we get a chance to forecheck, and it's kind of the game within the game of tilting the ice and creating momentum and sustaining o-zone time.”
It’s also how Anaheim did not allow their continued power play power outage to sway the game into Vegas’ favor.
In a normal playoff environment, if the home team kills off back-to-back-to-back power plays and 1:42 of a five-on-three, the crowd comes alive, and the home team will ride the surge. Vegas even went on their own power play 30 seconds after the Anaheim onslaught was endured.
However, the Ducks did not allow a shot on the Knights advantage and held onto the momentum to sustain their pressure.
Anaheim likely doesn’t advance past Edmonton without the hot streak of its power play, but even with Vegas’ penalty kill sporting a league-best 24-of-25 kill rate in the playoffs, special teams has not yet turned the tide in this series.
It’s a tied series, 1-1, but aside from those special teams, these have been Anaheim’s games. The Ducks surely wanted both games in Vegas, but they’re more than happy to take the road split and roll back to a rocking Honda Center this weekend.
“We didn't like how game one ended, but we liked our game and that’s hockey sometimes,” Poehling said. “You can play the right way, do the right thing, you end up losing, but like we said, we kept the momentum going into game two, and now we're headed home, which is fantastic.”