In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights had an opportunity to lock down third in the Pacific on Thursday night when they faced off with the visiting Anaheim Ducks.
Instead, the Ducks sailed off with a 4-1 win that, coupled with the Los Angeles Kings’ win over the Chicago Blackhawks in in extra time, dropped the Knights to the second wild card in the Western Conference.
“Every team that’s left standing is a good hockey team. There’s no easy path to winning, so, you know, we understand that every game is going to be a battle. I think we should be pretty excited. It’s a great opportunity for our team,” Vegas forward Jack Eichel said. “It was a tight-checking series last year. Obviously, the first two games in that series went to overtime and, you know, they’re a great hockey team.”
Lukas Dostal made 32 saves in the win.
The Ducks ended their se4ason with a 27-50-5 record.
Frank Vatrano hit for a hat trick in the loss.
“It’s a big win for us,” Vatrano said. “I think top to bottom we played great as a team and did what we needed to do to win the game, and now we’ll take that going into next season.”
Vegas dropped to 45-29-8.
“We play every game to win,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “So, I’m always going to look at why we didn’t (win). Early on in the first period, we played the right way in terms of how we’re going to generate offense. … We did a really good job just didn’t finish. Credit to their goaltender, he made some saves. Then in the second period, we were not quite as good. We got into a little more of a rush game. In the third, obviously, we didn’t do what we needed to do to score.
In the third period,Jackson LaCombe scored at the 51-second mark to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead. Cutter Gauthier assisted on the goal for his first career NHL [point, he had two assists on the night.
“It feels incredible,” Gauthier said. “I heard ‘Comber’ calling for it there, and I just passed it to him. I saw it trickling in there. Pure excitement. Pure joy. It’s something you dream of as a kid. So, it was a really cool moment.”
Vatrano then hit a double.
He hit for his double on the night just 29 seconds the Ducks took the 2-1 lead for a 3-1 advantage.
“We were opportunistic. You know, they missed a chance early in the period. They could have gone up 2-1,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “They had a flurry around our net. We were just fortunate the puck bounced for us. We got the second one and a third one shortly after a
nd, you know, anytime you score goals like that, especially for us, as we had a hard time scoring this year, it just builds confidence across the bench.”
Vatrano collected his hats at 19:45 with a shorthanded strike into an empty net for the 4-1 final.
Adin Hill made 19 saves in the loss.
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