ANAHEIM, Calif. – When looking for an even-keeled positive take coming out of the Anaheim Ducks’ abysmal 6-2 loss in Game 3 to the Vegas Golden Knights, look no further than Lukáš Dostál following his stellar near-shutout performance in Anaheim’s 3-1 win in Game 2.
“It’s still one win in the series,” Dostál said. “I always say it doesn’t matter how you win or what the score is.”
At the end of Friday night at Honda Center, it’s still just a 2-1 series lead for Vegas.
There’s no extra points for scoring at all three strengths–even strength, shorthanded and on power play–in the first period or for Mitch Marner netting a hat trick to claim the playoff lead in goals and points.
There’s also no extra demerits for Dostál giving up a goal on the first shot of the game for the third time in nine playoff games–13th time all season–before getting pulled after one period or the Ducks power play remaining power less–0-for-11 in the series after converting at 50% in the first round.However, if you’re looking for more fire and brimstone commiserate with just how bad Anaheim looked at points in Game 3, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville had that for you, when asked if his team came in too comfortable after controlling the play in the first two games.
“I think that there's a lesson to take out of today's game, and it's only gonna get harder every single game,” Quenneville said. “Not gonna get any easier. So let's get ready to go to war.”
Anaheim will get its chance to return fire in Game 4 on Sunday at Honda Center, but first, there is the autopsy of Friday.
From puck drop, the Ducks were not good in Game 3, and not on the back of one particular player or one particular breakdown. Every position group, every line and every man-strength unit had something come apart and go against them.
“I think they just outbattled us,” Jackson LaCombe said. “They won more puck battles than we did. They played physical. We’ve got to be better next game.”
Just 48 hours after that 21-save performance and 59:54 of shutout hockey by Dostál, social media reaction was all over the Anaheim netminder with the aforementioned early goals and pull, but this was not a one-man collapse.
When asked if pulling Dostál was for his own showing or for the team’s play in front of him, Quenneville said, “both.”
Just one minute in, Vegas gained the zone, and with Jack Eichel in the corner and a wide-open middle to survey, Eichel hit the trailing Shea Theodore at the far point, who snuck behind the unaware Cutter Gauthier. Theodore then ripped a shot around the inadvertent screen of Ryan Poehling, who became an unfortunate obstruction after tying up his man in front.
Vegas again negated the Anaheim power play 11 minutes later, and Brayden McNabb scored shorthanded on a slightly flubbed half-armed shot that crossed up Dostál, 2-0. For the second straight series, the Knights' penalty kill is outscoring its opponents' power play. An odd one, but also the one Dostal wants back.
In the dying seconds of the first period, Vegas’ power play capitalized on a broken play. Marner got a shot off slicing through the Ducks’ penalty kill box, but that shot took an odd deflection and bobbled off of Dostál. No one could control the bouncer, until it found Marner’s stick, who tucked it around the Anaheim netminder, 3-0.
“Getting that third one at the end of the period certainly was a killer,” Quenneville said, “and that was basically the game.”
A cross-zone breakdown for a screened goal one minute in. A change-up shorthanded goal midway through. A broken power play knuckler in the final seconds.
All situational killing goals in their own right, and it ended Dostál’s night with three allowed goals on eight shots.
“It's tough to win a game when you put yourself in spots like that,” Alex Killorn said. “I thought they played well, but I don't think we brought our best. Maybe a little bit comfortable after last game. They’re a great team, we just have to have a little bit of a better start and effort throughout the game.”
After thoroughly dominating the first six periods of the series–only good for a 1-1 tie at that point, Vegas truly “entered the series,” according to coach John Tortorella, and there is plenty of credit to be given to the Knights’ team game.
Vegas blocked 20 shots, whereas Anaheim only got in front of six. The Knights’ penalty kill continued at an elite clip with a two-for-two night to add to a 25-for-26 run in the playoffs.
However, as Killorn noted, Vegas’ best game wasn’t done without the Ducks’ help, and as if to prove it wasn’t only the goaltender’s fault, the breakdowns did not stop for Anaheim.
A slow-developing Ducks line change led to a four-on-three break, where Marner took advantage of the space to maneuver around a left-out-to-dry Ville Husso–who entered in the second period and allowed two second-period goals among the 19 total shots faced.
Marner pulled in his first career playoff hat trick nearly nine minutes later, as Marner evaded Drew Helleson’s eye behind the net. Helleson left Marner to cover the net front, and Marner again used time and space to sneak out and squeeze a shortside shot between Husso and the post, 5-0.
One part “how is the playoffs new leading goal scorer left that wide open when he already has two goals tonight,” and another part “that’s one Husso wants back.”
Point being, no Duck was immune from a blunder as Vegas steamrolled in Game 3.
To zoom back out, it’s still just one game, and Anaheim did claw back a bit in the third period. Carter Hart let up his own softy, as Beckett Sennecke dove at a loose puck that snuck through the Vegas goalie’s arm, and Chris Kreider finished off a trademark passing sequence from Troy Terry.
“Everything adds up, so play the whole 60 and continue to play physical,” Kreider said. “Make that investment in a seven-game series. Each game's kind of a standalone thing, so we've just got to be better going into the next game.”
The Ducks have been better than they were in Game 3. They were better just two days ago.
Anaheim has been a comeback team all season, and it must respond in Game 4. Otherwise, Vegas just made a hard turn in this series and with a heavy helping hand.