The Ducks return home with a chance to clinch the best-of-seven second-round NHL playoff series with Game 3 on Friday night. Vegas is hoping for a repeat of its first-round series when the Golden Knights went to Utah 1-1 before winning in six games.
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Sennecke, a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy awarded to the league’s top rookie, became the fourth Ducks player age 20 or younger to score multiple goals in a postseason.
Dostal saved 23 shots and nearly recorded the third shutout of his career, including regular-season play, before Mark Stone scored a power-play goal in the final seconds.
Carter Hart made 25 saves for the Golden Knights. Brett Howden’s four-goal streak ended, as did Ivan Barbarshev’s seven-point streak.
The Golden Knights’ penalty gave them a chance. They killed all five penalties, including a 6:19 stretch in the first period in which the Golden Knights took four penalties, including a high-stick double minor by Jack Eichel. Vegas has called back 19 consecutive penalties this postseason and is 24 of 25 overall.
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But offense was again at a premium for Vegas, and coach John Tortorella adjusted his lines to try to find some life. Stone moved to the top line, William Karlsson moved to second and Pavel Dorofeyev dropped to third.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville found some magic by moving Cutter Gauthier to the second line with Mikael Granlund and Alex Killorn. That group had 20 scoring chances to one for Vegas in just 6:25 of action after two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. They finished with a 23-5 lead.
The Ducks broke through in the second period, controlling the game for about six minutes as Vegas struggled to keep the puck out of their zone. Finally it was too much, Jeffrey Viel passed from below the goal line to Sennecke, camped in front of the net for a 1-0 lead with 8:37 left in the period.
Troy Terry’s backhand pass to Carlsson at 6:36 of the third period made it 2-0 Ducks. Harkins added an empty-net goal with 3:30 left.
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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl