Knights charge into Pacific lead with 4-2 win over Ducks

With the Los Angeles Kings in the midst of a long skid, the Vegas Golden Knights find themselves in the position of being atop the Pacific Division.

That is courtesy of an LA loss Wednesday night and their own 4-2 win over the Ducks in Anaheim.

Maxime Lagace had 17 saves to get the win for Vegas.

“My work was limited. The guys played really strong,” Lagace said. “They didn’t have too many opportunities. It was a mental game. Just to stay focused.”

Jonathan Marchessault, James Neal, William Karlsson, and  Colin Miller scored for the Knights.

“It’s a big win tonight,” Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought our team played excellent all night long, and somebody said we are in first place. Is that official? Perfect.”

Vegas improved to 13-6-1 with the win.

The Ducks had a three-game streak snapped in the loss.

Anaheim held a 2-0 lead before the Knights found their game and scored four unanswered markers to win.

Josh Manson and Derek Grant scored for Anaheim

“They were taking it to us even in the beginning, but we found a way to get some goals,” Manson said. “[Gibson] was holding us in there for most of the game, but when you give up [49] shots, that’s what is going to happen.”

Anaheim dropped to 10-8-3 with the loss.

“Something needs to be figured out,” Andrew Cogliano said. “The 2-0 lead wasn’t really a true tale of the game. We just got lucky. The score should’ve been a lot more if we didn’t have [Gibson] in there. We shouldn’t kid ourselves. We weren’t even close.”

[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Ducks highlights]

John Gibson made 45 saves in the loss and felt a bit abandoned late in the game.

“You can’t rely on the guy in the net to stand on his head. [Gibson] did that tonight,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. “The score was 4-2 and it could’ve been 10. That’s how good he played.”

The Ducks let their foot off the gas up ice and left Gibson to defend the cage without much support down low.

“Gibson made some unbelievable saves, but we just stayed with it and kept playing the game and we found a way to get that big power-play goal,” Gallant said.