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- The Ducks struggled to generate quality scoring chances in a 3-1 loss to Vegas in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
- Vegas goalie Carter Hart made 33 saves as the Ducks failed to convert on four power-play chances.
LAS VEGAS — T-Mobile Arena sits just off the Las Vegas Strip, not far from a faux Manhattan skyline, a pyramid and a casino made to look like a castle.
The line separating illusion from reality can be a thin one in Sin City, where the Ducks opened the second round of the NHL playoffs Monday, intent on proving their first-round victory over the Edmonton Oilers was more than a facade.
They may have taken some big steps toward doing that in Game 1 despite a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. That’s because the Ducks more than held their own, with the go-ahead goal coming after a blown icing call and the final score landing in an open net.
“We feel good about this group,” Ducks winger Troy Terry said. “We feel good about how we match up with them. We used our speed all night. We made it hard on them, and I like how we played.
Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Chris Kreider each had a goal and two assists as the Ducks eliminated Connor McDavid and the Oilers with a 5-2 win in Game 6.
“If we can play like that for the length of this series, we should put ourselves in a good spot.”
The Ducks will get a chance to find that good spot Wednesday when the best-of-seven series resumes in Las Vegas. And the confidence they gained in what ultimately proved to be a losing effort Monday may prove to be more important than the final score.
This matchup, after all, looked like a mismatch coming in. Since entering the league nine seasons ago, Vegas has made eight playoff appearances and won a Stanley Cup. Until two weeks ago, the Ducks hadn’t even won a postseason game over that same span. In fact, 14 players on their roster — the youngest of any Western Conference playoff team — had never been to the postseason before last month and most of those 14 had never even played on a winning team in the NHL.
But then you could have said much the same about the Ducks’ first-round series with the Oilers. That one ended with the Ducks scoring 26 goals, converting eight of their 16 power-play opportunities and rallying from deficits in five of the six games to eliminate a team that played in the last two Stanley Cup finals.
To repeat that result the Ducks are going to have to repeat the way they played against the Oilers. And though Anaheim displayed the same speed in Vegas that it used to bedevil Edmonton, it got just one of 34 shots by Vegas goalie Carter Hart and went 0 for 4 on the power play.
“All these chances, we need to put one or two in,” Terry said.
A game-high four of those shots came from Terry, who wound up empty-handed.
“I’m going to be kicking myself tonight,” he said.
Yet despite all that, the Ducks and Golden Knights, who went to overtime in two of their three regular-season meetings, seemed headed there again Monday when Mikael Granlund tied the game for Anaheim with 6:03 left in regulation.
A minute later Vegas took the lead back for good on a goal that probably shouldn’t have counted,
The play started innocently enough with Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev sending the puck into the Anaheim zone before reaching the red line. Normally that would have resulted in an icing call and a faceoff in the Golden Knights’ defensive end. But as Vegas center Jack Eichel and Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe raced after the puck, linesman Bevan Mills, believing Eichel would reach it first, waved off icing.
Seconds later the loose puck wound up with Pavel Dorofeyev, who fed Barbashev for the deciding goal.
“Clearly I disagreed with the call. It was clearly icing,” said Joel Quenneville, the Ducks’ visibly angry coach. “That was the play for me. We had just scored. It was a huge call. And an easy call.”
LaCombe blamed himself for giving the puck away.
“I thought it was an icing, but you’ve just got to keep playing hockey,” he said. “Doesn’t mean I can make a soft play after that. That’s how it is.”
For the Ducks, getting no reward for their best defensive game of the playoffs was frustrating. But in a way it was encouraging too.
“Our pace was good. We’re making plays. We’re kind of playing our game, which is great,” LaCombe said. “We just got to clean up those two mistakes there and we’re good.”
The Ducks weren’t working on those repairs Tuesday since Quenneville gave the team the day off. And harnessing his team’s frustration and energy may prove to be the right call because on Monday night there were some in the Ducks’ locker room who couldn’t wait for Game 2 to start.
“A lot of emotions right now,” Terry said. “Kind of a hard one to swallow. We can feel we deserve better, or whatever.
“They’re a good team. They’re going to make adjustments. We’re going to make adjustments. This group’s excited for Game 2 already.”
