In Anaheim, the Ducks scored four first period goals on Wednesday and defeated the visiting Vegas Golden Knights, 5-2.
For the Knights, it was their fourth straight loss.
“We didn’t check well in certain situations,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “(Frank) Vatrano’s goal from below the goal line, that’s something we pre-scouted and they’re able to make those plays. They’re good at it. We’ve got to defend that better.”
John Gibson made 30 saves in the win.
The Ducks moved to 13-21-0.
Brett Leason scored a double for the Ducks, his second goal in the middle frame frame blunted a Vegas rally when they closed the gap to 4+-2.
The Ducks jumped out quickly with Leason striking at 3:23 for a 1-0 lead.
Jamie Drysdale added a marker at 8:23 to extend the advantage to 2-0.
“Crazy play by him,” Drysdale said of McTavish. “I know he saw me earlier, we locked eyes for what felt like five or six seconds before, and then he somehow managed to slide it over.”
Vatrano scored his goal just past the midway point of the first for a 3-0 lead.
Anaheim’s Troy Terry ballooned the lead to 4-0 at 12:18, the goal came off a turnover by the Golden Knights in the neutral zone..
“We turned the puck over in the neutral zone and it comes back at us,” Cassidy said. “So there’s some mistakes, but you also need saves.”
The Golden Knights dropped to 21-10-5.
In the middle frame, Vegas tried to rally back with goals from Alec Martinez at 7:23, and Mark Stone‘s strike at 12:34 of the second to shave the deficit to 4-2.
“We’ve got to figure this out,” Martinez said. “As a team, you look at the last four, five, six games, giving up four-plus goals, that’s not what we do. I think that’s a lack of attention to detail, not playing a team game. I think we’ve been disconnected. I think we’ve got to play more together as five and support each other all over the ice.”
Stone scored off the power play.
“Some of the penalties we took took some of the steam out of us,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “I think it gave them a lot of energy.”
Lesson scored at at 17:45 of the middle frame to stop the rally for the final count of 5-2.
Logan Thompson made 21 saves in the loss.
“Right now, ‘Hilly’ (Adin Hill) is hurt and there’s an opportunity for Logan Thompson and Jiri Patera,” Cassidy said. “We’ve got to play better in front of them, and they’ve got to play better for us. It’s a combination of both things.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.