Recap: Ducks Can't Complete Comeback, Fall 5-4 to Golden Knights

The Ducks fought back from a three-goal second period deficit but could not complete the comeback, falling 5-4 to the Vegas Golden Knights tonight at Honda Center.
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"I think we shot ourselves in the foot in the first and part of the second," head coach Dallas Eakins said. "I think in the third what happened wasn't that we got our game going, we quit turning pucks over in the neutral zone. It's as simple as that. We weren't turning pucks over, we got O-zone time, we got lots of looks at the net. In the first period, I think we turned it over nine, maybe 10 times. It cost us valuable O-zone time. Second period, same thing. That was the difference for me."
With the loss, Anaheim fell to 26-22-9 (61 points) on the season, sixth in the Pacific Divison (.535), and 2-3-0 heading to the finale of a season-long six-game homestand.
John Gibson made 29 saves in his 40th start of the season. Jakob Silfvebrerg, Nicolas Deslauriers, Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry scored for Anaheim.
Anaheim's power play continued its excellent season, scoring twice on the man advantage for the second straight game. The Ducks now rank fourth in the NHL on the power play (41-for-155, 25.9%) and eighth on the penalty kill (133-for-161, 82.6%).
Nicolas Roy (twice), Ben Hutton, Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio scored for the victorious Golden Knights, who moved into the Pacific Division's third and final playoff spot with the win.
Silfverberg gave Anaheim an early lead thanks to some friendly home-cooking. The veteran winger got to a loose puck in the Vegas zone and skated down the wall before zipping a low shot along the ice, off the stick of unsuspecting Vegas netminder Laurent Brossoit and between his legs, putting the Ducks ahead 1-0 just under five minutes into the action.

Silfverberg has points in back-to-back games (1-1=2).
Vegas answered just two minutes later when Hutton took a pass from the corner and wired a wrist shot past Gibson from the slot.
The second period was a wild 20 minutes full of end-to-end scoring chances, but a few critical Ducks defensive breakdowns saw Vegas outscore Anaheim 4-2 to take a two-goal lead to the third.
It did not take long in the second for Vegas to claim its first lead of the night, as Jonathan Marchessault buried a chance from the slot before Gibson could get set following a pass from behind the net.
Just like their opponents did in the first, Anaheim quickly responded to the go-ahead goal, tying the game on a slapshot blast from the point by Deslauriers.

Derek Grant collected the secondary assist for his 100th career NHL point. Grant scored 74 of those points in a Ducks sweater.
The back-and-forth action just picked up from there though, as Roy scored twice three minutes apart to give the visitors some cushion.
Roy scored his first on a fortitutious bounce off the end-wall, collecting an errant shot by former Ducks defenseman Shea Theodore and tapping it between Gibson's legs before the goaltender could find the puck.
The just turned 25-year-old center notched his second on his very next shift when he shoveled home a shot from the slot after a Ducks defender had blocked a point bid by Alex Pietrangelo.
Amadio put the finishing touches on the Golden Knights' scoring outburst as the beneficiary of a perfect backdoor pass from Chandler Stephenson, giving the Golden Knights a 5-2 lead midway through the middle frame.
Staring a three-goal deficit after a ten-minute stretch full of defensive miscues, Anaheim refused to waver, instead going back to work to kickstart a comeback bid.
Zegras gave the Ducks life late in the period with his second power-play goal in as many games, roofing a shot from the faceoff circle after a skillful touch pass by Rickard Rakell from the slot.

Zegras is tied for second among NHL rookies in scoring (15-27=42) and assists. He has 3-6=9 points in his last seven games.
Terry brought Anaheim back within a goal on a third period man advantage, beating Brossoit with a beautiful backhand move in tight for his team-leading 28th goal of the season.

The All-Star forward is now just two goals from becoming the 10th Duck to score 30 goals in one season.
Anaheim fought hard for the tying goal throughout the third period, peppering Brossoit with chances, but could not find the equalizer to force overtime as Vegas skated away with a 5-4 victory.
"In the third, we had a lot of chances," defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. "We were taking it to them. I think we also had some chances in the first and second. I think we just have to keep going shift after shift instead of maybe having one and done. That's the biggest thing we can take from the third, to keep pushing and get after them. If you do that, it's going to be an easier game for sure."
"When we play an intelligent game with the puck, we get action against," Eakins added. "I don't care who we play against, when we get into not being so smart with the puck, we end up in our zone. Tonight, they got a couple of good bounces, one off the end wall, another one they kind of flubbed the shot and it ended up getting toward our net. We had a couple of momentarily lapses of reason in our D-zone coverage on a couple of goals. But the game wasn't that we were sitting on our heels. It was that we were pressing too hard with the puck and we were too careless with it for 30 minutes."
The Ducks begin a five-game road trip Tuesday in Chicago.