John Gibson made a season-high 49 saves and Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry both scored in the shootout to give the Anaheim Ducks a 3-2 shootout victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night.
Gibson, playing his first game since suffering a lower-body injury in a Dec. 13 game against Toronto, also turned aside both shootout tries he saw from Mark Stone and Reilly Smith as Anaheim won just its sixth home game in 15 tries this season, only one of which has come in regulation.
Adam Henrique scored two goals for Anaheim, the 25th multi-goal game of his career, while Terry and Zegras each assisted on both goals.
Stone and Ben Hutton scored goals for Vegas, which lost consecutive road games for the first time this season. The Golden Knights lost 4-2 in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Logan Thompson, who replaced starter Adin Hill at the 12:26 mark of the first period after Hill allowed two goals on five shots, made 22 saves. It marked the first time this season the Golden Knights made an in-game goaltender change.
Thompson had stopped 14 of 16 shootout tries this season, tops in the NHL. Zegras roofed a short wrist shot over his glove side to open the shootout and Gibson then made a pad save on Stone. Terry followed with a wrist shot through Thompson’s pads. Smith then fired his shot wide to end the shootout.
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead at the 3:27 mark of the first period when Henrique backhanded in his own rebound.
After killing a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:51, the Ducks increased their lead to 2-0 on Henrique’s slap shot just inside the blue line that went past Hill’s blocker side and into the top lefthand corner of the goal for his 11th goal of the season.
But Vegas cut it to 2-1 just 49 seconds later on a short-handed breakaway goal by Stone, who deked Gibson with a backhand fake before wrapping a forehand shot around his left pad for his 16th goal of the season. It also was the seventh short-handed goal of the season for the Golden Knights, tops in the NHL.
Vegas, which outshot Anaheim 37-12 over the first two periods, including 20-5 in the second, tied it 2-2 at the 13:32 mark of second period when Hutton’s backhand attempt caromed in off Ducks defenseman Urho Vaakanainen. It was Hutton’s first goal of the season and snapped a 29-game goal drought dating back to March.
Stone had a chance to score another short-handed goal and give Vegas the lead early in the third period but Gibson stopped his point-blank try.
–Field Level Media