Marner’s big night helps Vegas reach Western Conference Final

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mitch Marner may not care about the narratives that surround him, but whether he likes it or not, the hockey world does.

Over the past few years, Marner has drawn the ire of Toronto Maple Leafs fans for the team’s postseason struggles, as he was one of the superstars expected to help the Maple Leafs end their 59-year Stanley Cup drought. In the end, the team failed to get past the second round of the playoffs with their star-studded core of Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares, and Marner took the brunt of the blame as fans doubted his playoff playing abilities, which led to his departure last summer. 

In his first season donning a Vegas Golden Knights uniform, Marner is proving that all the noise is just narratives. And on Thursday night at Honda Center, Marner cemented his case with a two-point effort in a Game 6 win, 5-1, to eliminate the Anaheim Ducks and move on to the Western Conference Finals. 

In the playoffs as a whole, Marner scored seven goals and notched 18 points in 12 games. His 18 points lead all players this postseason.

“This game is probably one of the biggest non-individual games out of all the sports that are professional, to be honest,” Marner said of making the conference finals for the first time. “Nothing in this sport can really beat one man, so I think our line has done a great job throughout this series of making plays, finding the open ice, playing very responsible (defensive) zone wise but yeah, I mean, obviously, individually wise it feels great to be going on to the next round with this team and the work now really just keeps getting harder and we're excited for it.” 

Honda Center had been a tough place for visiting teams to play in this season. The Ducks were 28-15-4 at home this year, counting regular season and playoffs, which is why it was a priority for the Golden Knights to get off to a good start. 

And boy did they. 

It took just 62 seconds for Marner to set the tone for Vegas. He got behind Jackson LaCombe and received a home run pass from William Karlsson to get on a partial breakaway. After shaking off LaCombe and getting Lukáš Dostál to bite on the backhand deke, Marner stopped at the goal crease and put the puck between his legs before flipping it into the back of the net for a highlight-reel goal. 

“I just tried to find open ice and kind of cut through the middle and (Karlsson) made a great pass to me and then from that moment on, I just tried to make a move and Dostál had me covered in the backhand, so I tried to do that move and lucky enough it worked out,” Marner said.

Marner has plenty of highlights in his portfolio, but none have come in a bigger game to stun the Anaheim crowd in an elimination game.

“That's him, though,” Shea Theodore said. “He's so good on his edges and he's so good at finding different ways to get things done. You'll see him kind of kicking pucks between his legs here and there and going between the legs.”

Shortly after, Marner’s elite play-making ability once again struck. This time, shorthanded. 

On the penalty kill eight minutes after opening the scoring, Marner weaved his way into the offensive zone to draw the Ducks’ defenders’ attention, which allowed Brett Howden to sneak behind the defense, and Marner sent a cross-ice pass that Howden easily one-timed into the empty net to make it 2-0. 

It was Howden’s eighth goal of these playoffs, and the third shorthanded goal as well. His three shorthanded goals now tie an NHL record for most shorthanded goals in a single postseason.

Vegas, in general, is dominant on the penalty kill, as they’ve now killed 33 of 38 possible penalties, and have scored four shorthanded goals. 

In the center of the Golden Knights’ success on the penalty kill is Marner, who has four shorthanded assists and uses his skills to break up plays in the defensive zone.

“I feel like me and Mitch are kind of building a little something here,” Howden said. “I'm learning to read off of him and his instincts and trying to get to the front of the net, and he's made some incredible plays to me.”

With an early 2-0 lead, Vegas flexed its playoff experience and didn’t allow Anaheim to get back into the game, coasting to a 5-1 win, with Pavel Dorofeyev picking up two more goals off of defensive zone turnovers and Theodore notching a power play goal. 

Dorofeyev now leads the postseason with nine goals, which all have come in his last nine games.

The Golden Knights now have the tallest of tasks in facing the juggernaut Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals. 

The President Trophy-winning Avalanche put up 121 points in the regular season, eight more points than the next closest team. And in the playoffs, Colorado has faced little adversity, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings in the first round and taking care of the Minnesota Wild in five games in the second round.

Needless to say, the Golden Knights are going to need everyone. They’ll need their depth players to step up, and they’ll definitely need their stars to be stars. 

Luckily for Vegas, its biggest star is playing like one. 

“Just trying to take the ice I get,” Marner said. “I think we had some really good moments in our Utah series as well, making plays and finding open ice that we just weren't able to capitalize on and I thought we did a really good job in this series. When we had our moments, we capitalized on them.”