Ducks carrying ‘a lot of positives’ into Game 2 of Western 2nd Round

LAS VEGAS -- The Anaheim Ducks were the better team in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round, despite their 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.

The question now is how each team will respond in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series here Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN360, SN, TVAS).

“Maybe they didn’t play their best last night, and they stole one from us,” Ducks forward Ryan Poehling said Tuesday. “But from our standpoint, you just know that they’re going to come out harder. You know they’re going to make adjustments. They’re going to be tougher on us, try to slow us down, so know that’s coming. But yeah, (we want) more of the same.”

Anaheim was as advertised in Game 1. The Ducks displayed their speed against the Golden Knights and outshot them 34-22. They had plenty of scoring chances and didn’t allow the Golden Knights much time in their zone, and goalie Lukas Dostal was solid.

Ducks forward Troy Terry hit a post at 2:24 of the second period, 50 seconds before forward Brett Howden gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. About four minutes later, defenseman Jackson LaCombe had a chance to tie it but passed up a shot at an open net.

After forward Mikael Granlund tied it 1-1 at 13:57 of the third period, a controversial decision by an official to wave off an icing call led to forward Ivan Barbashev giving the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead at 15:02. Vegas forward Mitch Marner added an empty-net goal with six seconds left.

“A lot of positives coming out of that game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I liked how we played. I thought we had good pace to our game. I thought ‘Dosty’ was good in net. I thought across the board, we had everybody contributing, and we had the energy we were looking for and the speed and the pace, and we had some good opportunities. We missed some great chances as well.”

Anaheim went 0-for-4 on the power play, but Quenneville saw positives in that area too.

“I still thought there was enough momentum in our power-play opportunities, or possession and zone time, that the power play was still effective in what they have to do,” he said. “It’s just a matter of now trying to find a goal to get it going.”

The Ducks felt much the same way after a 4-3 loss at the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the first round. They won the next three games by a combined score of 17-11 and won the series in six.

“There’s a lot of different momentum swings,” Granlund said. “Every series is different. Every game is different. Got to be able to move on, try to get better every single time. That’s all you can do. It’s the playoffs. Things happen. That’s just a part of the game.”

Poehling said the Ducks will use the loss as motivation.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you want to win Game 1,” he said. “It’s tough when you play so well and you feel like you deserve to win and you don’t. But at the end of the day, hockey’s a weird sport, and there’s some days where you don’t deserve to win and you do. I think we’re happy with how we played and we’ve just got to kind of continue that momentum moving forward.”