Ducks doomed by slow start in Game 3 loss in Western 2nd Round

ANAHEIM -- The Anaheim Ducks have shown they are capable of flight in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

Now, they’ll need to demonstrate they can pick themselves up and dust themselves off after losing 6-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round here at Honda Center on Friday.

It was Anaheim’s most lopsided postseason defeat this season, and worst since losing 8-1 in Game 3 of their first-round series against the San Jose Sharks in 2018.

“I think today’s game after the first period, we had miles and miles to get ourselves back in the game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I always find there is one game in a series that you can throw away and that’s in the garbage can for me.” 

Expectations were high going into Game 3 for Anaheim after playing two solid games in Vegas and coming home with the split in the best-of-7 series.  

Yet it only took one shot for the Golden Knights to put the Ducks on their heels. 

Defenseman Shea Theodore scored 1:06 into the first period, sucking the energy out of the building in the process. 

A short-handed goal by defenseman Brayden McNabb at 12:13 negated any momentum Anaheim built trying to come back in the period, and a power-play goal by Mitch Marner at 19:55, his first of three, proved to be the gut punch.

It was the 13th time this season goalie Lukas Dostal gave up a goal on the first shot he faced. He let the first one past him in Game 4 and Game 5 in the first round against the Edmonton Oilers and 10 times in the regular season. 

Dostal made five saves in the first period and was replaced by Ville Husso to start the second. Dostal’s status as the Game 4 starter here on Sunday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, SN, TVAS) is not guaranteed according to Quenneville. 

“It wasn’t a great start, they score inside the first (two) minutes and then they get a PK and then that goal on the power play with whatever it was, five seconds left, it’s tough to win a game when you put yourself in spots like that,” Ducks forward Alex Killorn said. “Some mistakes that we made was not typical of our team, but it’s a seven-game series, they played well tonight I give them credit.” 

Going into the playoffs after a seven-season absence and upsetting the Oilers in six games in the first round, the Ducks went into the series against the Golden Knights feeling as though they were playing with house money. 

But the deeper they go, the more the pressure increases due to the weight of expectations. 

Anaheim knew that going into Game 3. 

“I think it’s slowly increasing because the games mean just so much more,” Ducks forward Beckett Sennecke said Friday morning. “Every next game is the biggest game of the year. We all feel that weight in here but at the same time, we all worked for that and prepared for that.” 

Now, facing real adversity for the first time in the playoffs, the Ducks are already looking ahead at the next game. It’s close to a must-win, as Anaheim does not want to fall behind 3-1 in the series with Game 5 back in Vegas on Tuesday. 

“We’ll take the lessons from this one, leave the mistakes and improve and respond,” Ducks forward Chris Kreider said. “Give them credit, they played a good first period, we just have to have a better start.”

Anaheim has 14 players taking part in their first NHL postseason and has been learning on the fly.

The Game 3 defeat is another opportunity to learn and improve for the Ducks, who mounted a brief third-period comeback with goals from Sennecke and Kreider and cutting the deficit to 5-2 before an empty-net goal by Brett Howden at 18:04 sealed the victory. 

“I think maybe we were a little bit comfortable after last game,” Killorn said. “They’re a great team and we just have to have a little better start and effort throughout the game. We have to be more dialed into the next game.”

Scoring on the power play would be a good start for Anaheim. 

Having gone 8-for-16 (50 percent) against the Oilers in the first round, the Ducks are scoreless on 11 power plays against the Golden Knights. 

“We just have to adjust and find new ways, that’s part of having a good power play,” Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. “We have the guys to do it, and we just have to find a way.

“I think we have to do what they did to us. The first few games they did a good job of getting pucks in and playing in their zone and they did that to us and so we have to do that to them the next game.”