Vince Comunale
What was on the line for the Anaheim Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 at Anaheim on Sunday night? Teams that take a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series win the series 90 percent of the time (247 of 275). Further, if the Game 4 win comes on the road to take a 3-1 series lead, that team wins 92 percent of the series (151 of 165). Given these percentages, the pressure was on the Anaheim Ducks (2-2), who rose to the occasion, netted two power play goals, and delivered a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights (2-2).
Both teams were captain-less. Anaheim was missing Radko Gudas for a seventh straight game, while the Golden Knights were without captain Mark Stone due to an undisclosed injury. Stone only played 4:24 in Game 3 before exiting with a non-contact injury. Without Stone in the lineup this season, the Golden Knights were 8-9-5 with a winning percentage of .519, compared to 31-17-12 with him in the lineup and a winning percentage of .593.
The scoring opened when Anaheim finally figured out the Vegas penalty kill and got the game’s first goal via the power play. The Anaheim power play had been 0-11 prior to Game 4, but that changed at 8:43 of the first when Beckett Sennecke (4) blew a slap shot through the five-hole of Carter Hart from the top of the right circle to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead. It was Sennecke’s third-consecutive game in the series with a goal. Not only had the Golden Knights’ penalty kill been perfect in the series prior to Sennecke’s goal, it had killed 21-consecutive penalties and 26 of 27.
Just 1:40 after Sennecke’s goal, the Golden Knights got a power play goal of their own to even the game at one. Jack Eichel took a slap shot from the top of the left circle that tipped off the glove of Anaheim netminder Lukas Dostal. Before Dostal could find the rebound, Pavel Dorofeyev (5) beat Anaheim forward Mikael Granlund to the net, pounced on the puck, and shoveled it into the net for Vegas’ third power play goal of the series in ten opportunities.
While Granlund could not tie up Dorofeyev on the tying goal, just 5:05 later, he atoned for his sins by scoring a goal on a whacky bounce. Granlund (4) took a wrist shot from inside the left circle that hit the stick of Golden Knights forward Cole Smith, knocking the stick out of his hands. The deflection of Smith’s stick changed the trajectory of the puck, bounced off the ice just in front of Hart and then through his equipment to give Anaheim a 2-1 lead.
Vegas is known for its many high-profile magic shows, well William Karlsson performed a Shin Lim-like magic trick to get a pass to Brett Howden for a goal. Karlsson was the first person in on the forecheck and got the puck on his stick below the goal line. Just as he was absorbing a big hit from Jacob Trouba he somehow feathered a backhand pass through an impossibly tight area to Howden (7), who beat his man to the front of the net and was able to chip the Karlsson pass up and over Dostal to tie the game at two. The goal came at 4:04 and tied Howden with Minnesota’s Matt Boldy for the most post-season goals. Mitch Marner picked up the secondary assist, pushing him ahead of Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov for the most points in the post-season with 15. Marner ended the night with three points, giving him seven points in his past two games.
Anaheim got a third power play opportunity of the game late in the second frame and solved the vaunted Vegas penalty kill for a second time in the game. After a beautiful zone entry by Sennecke and some perimeter passing, Alex Killorn (4), gathered a loose puck at the bottom of the right circle, drove hard to the net, and then unleashed a wrist shot that forced its way under the left arm of Hart and in at 17:58 of the second.
Down by a goal to start the third, the Golden Knights started the frame on the power play due to Sennecke taking a cross-checking call at the 20-minute mark of the second period. However, Anaheim was able to kill the penalty and then build off that momentum to build a two-goal lead shortly thereafter. At the 3:43 mark of the third, Anaheim defenseman Ian Moore (1) took a slap shot from the left point with a puck that was on edge. The shot flipped end-over-end towards the net and snuck under the blocker of Hart to give Anaheim a 4-2 edge. It was the first career playoff goal for the 24-year-old Moore, who was a healthy scratch for Anaheim in Games 2 and 3.
With Hart pulled for the extra attacker, Tomas Hertl (1) got on the board at 18:56 of the third to make things interesting, scoring his first goal in 29 games, dating back to March 4, but it proved to be too little, too late, as the Golden Knights ended up icing the puck with 10 seconds left to dash any hopes of a tying the game.
Three-to-two odds are the best that you can get in a Vegas casino for blackjack. Likewise, whichever team wins Game 5 on Tuesday will take a three-to-two series lead and that team will surely like their odds to move on to the Western Conference Finals.
Notes
- The win for Anaheim was the 24th-consecutive win in Ducks’ playoff history when leading by multiple goals.
- With Mark Stone in the lineup, the Golden Knights average 3.32 goals per game. Without Stone in the lineup they average 2.96. Similarly, the power play percentage is 22.6% with Stone in the lineup, but only 17.0% when Stone is out.
Statistics
- Shots on goal favored Anaheim 23-21.
- Faceoffs winning percentages were 52.9 percent for Vegas and 47.1% for Anaheim.
- Vegas was 1-3 on the power play, while Anaheim was 2-4.
- Hits favored Anaheim, 34-27.
- Vegas had the edge in blocked shots, 14-13.
- Vegas had four more giveaways than Anaheim, 14 versus 10.
- Vegas won the takeaway battle, 7-5.
