Vince Comunale
Game 2 between the Vegas Golden Knights (1-1) and Anaheim Ducks (1-1) took more than half the game for either team to score. Game 3 had no such problem, as the Golden Knights scored early and often, including a Mitch Marner hat trick, to win Game 3, 6-2 and take a 2-1 series lead.
The Golden Knights scored five-on-five, short-handed, and on the power play in the first period. It was their third, three-goal period of the playoffs. Just 1:06 into the game Jack Eichel, stationed along the bottom left wall, threw a precise cross-ice pass to defenseman Shea Theodore (3) who then wristed the puck from the crease past Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal. It appeared that Anaheim forward Ryan Poehling screened Dostal and he never saw the shot, which was Vegas’ first of the game.
The Golden Knights’ top playoff penalty kill unit continued its stellar play and scored its third short-handed goal of the post-season to give Vegas a 2-0 lead. Mitch Marner carried the puck into the Anaheim zone against a tired Anaheim group. Once over the blue line, he dropped the puck to an on-coming Brayden McNabb (1) who skated down the left wing and flicked a wrist shot from the faceoff dot inside the left circle that snuck under Dostal’s glove at 12:13 of the first.
Just as the Golden Knights scored early in the period, they also scored late. While on their first power play opportunity of the game, and with just 4.6 seconds left in the period, Marner (4) found a loose rebound that Dostal could not corral and stuffed it just inside the left post to give the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead. The news was not all good in the first for the Golden Knights, however, as they lost their captain Mark Stone to injury after playing just 4:24.
It was a frustrating first period for Anaheim, as they had more shots (11 to 8), more power play chances (2 to 1), more hits (15-11), and eight less giveaways than the Golden Knights (11 to 3), yet found themselves in a 3-0 hole. They also made a goaltending change to start the second period, pulling Dostal and calling on Ville Husso.
While Husso made a couple of initial saves, Marner and the Golden Knights quickly solved him as well. After a tic-tac-toe passing sequence between Brett Howden, Theodore, and Marner that ended with Marner (5) stick handling around Husso and tucking the puck inside the vacated net on his backhand at 9:19 of the second to put the Golden Knights up 4-0.
Marner, who moved up to the top line in Stone’s absence, continued his dominance and completed a natural hat trick at 17:56 of the second. The combination of William Karlsson and Marner simply outworked Anaheim down low. Karlsson won a puck battle below the goal line and got the puck to Marner who then curled out from behind the net and wristed what seemed like a harmless shot towards Husso that snuck under his right pad to increase the Golden Knights lead to five. The goal completed the first career post-season hat trick for Marner and also set a new career high for points in a playoff game with four.
Anaheim finally got a puck past Vegas netminder Carter Hart at 6:30 of the third. Alex Killorn took a bad angle slap shot from the very bottom of the right circle that snuck under the right armpit of Hart and rolled towards the net. Both Golden Knights defensemen scrambled to knock the puck away, but Anaheim rookie forward Beckett Sennecke (3) dove at the loose puck and was able to poke it over the goal line to ruin Hart’s shutout bid and make the score 5-1.
Chris Kreider (2) pulled Anaheim within three when he found himself alone in the crease with the puck on his stick and wristed a shot past Hart’s glove at 15:09 of the third. The goal was Kreider’s 50th career playoff goal. However, that was as close as Anaheim would get, as Howden (6) would score into the empty net at 18:04 of the third to give the Golden Knights a 6-2 advantage.
Notes
- The Golden Knights’ penalty kill has killed 27 of 28 penalties thus far in the post-season.
- The loss for Anaheim was its first on home ice in the playoffs. They had been 3-0 at Honda Center.
Statistics
- Shots on goal favored Anaheim 33-28.
- Hits were a whooping 53-23 in favor of Anaheim.
- Power play chances were three for Vegas and two for Anaheim.
- Faceoff winning percentage favored Vegas 56.9% to 43.1%.
- Blocked shots heavily favored Vegas, 20-6.
- Vegas had double the giveaways, 16-8, but also double the takeaways, 8-4.
