Ducks get up to speed, shut down Golden Knights in Game 2 win

LAS VEGAS -- The Anaheim Ducks are supposed to be a speedy offensive team.

Well, in Game 2 of the Western Conference Second Round on Wednesday, they were a speedy defensive team.

They smothered the Vegas Golden Knights in what coach Joel Quenneville called one of their better defensive performances of the season, winning 3-1 and tying the best-of-7 series 1-1.

Vegas didn’t get on the board until captain Mark Stone scored a power-play goal with six seconds left. By then, the stands at T-Mobile Arena had emptied for the most part, and Ducks fans were literally quacking.

“I think if you want to win in the playoffs, you better keep the puck out of your net,” Quenneville said. “So, that’s a mindset we should have right now and keep it going forward.”

Anaheim allowed 3.51 goals per game in the regular season, 29th in the NHL and worst among the teams that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the first round, the Ducks faced the Edmonton Oilers, who allowed 3.23 goals per game in the regular season, 25th in the NHL and second-worst among the teams that made the playoffs.

No surprise, it was a high-scoring series. The Ducks won in six games, and their four wins came by the scores of 6-4, 7-4, 4-3 in overtime and 5-2.

A big question entering the second round was how the Ducks would match up with the Golden Knights, who allowed 2.95 goals per game in the regular season, 12th in the NHL, and eventually slowed down the speedy Utah Mammoth in a six-game win in the first round.

“Obviously scoring in the playoffs is difficult and more challenging, and for us, we expect a tougher, tighter challenge from our opponents defensively,” Quenneville said before Game 1.

When you think of the Ducks’ speed, you think of them flying up the ice with the puck. But their speed showed up without the puck in Game 2 as well. They kept their shifts short, got in the Golden Knights’ faces all over the ice and stopped them before they could get going.

It started in the Vegas end. The Ducks would force the Golden Knights to ice the puck, giving themselves a face-off in the offensive zone; or force them to flip it out, allowing themselves to regroup and attack with speed; or force them to turn it over, allowing themselves a quick strike.

“It’s not like Edmonton where it’s fast, fast, fast,” center Ryan Poehling said. “We know they’re physical. We can play that game. But I think the way to beat them is just outpacing them.

“It’s not just with speed. It’s how we play -- you know, right up. Guys are supporting one another, and you saw it tonight. When we get in that rhythm and take quick shifts, it’s a hard team to play against.”

Vegas coach John Tortorella said the Golden Knights needed to get back quicker to the puck, so they could have more time to look up the ice and make a sharper play.

“Sometimes you can,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t because of the forechecking.”

He said the Golden Knights need to sustain more pressure in the Anaheim end. For two games now, they’ve struggled to do so. When they do get the puck down there, the Ducks are getting it out quickly.

“A lot of times, we’re one and done,” he said. “We need to create more pressure there, and I think that will hurt their attack.”

The Golden Knights did have some chances, particularly on a power play after Poehling took a tripping penalty at 11:37 of the third period. But the penalty kill came through, led by goalie Lukas Dostal.

“The guys did a hell of job,” said Dostal, who made 21 saves. “Full credit to them. They were battling out there. We were all swimming in the crease. I was playing more soccer goalie than hockey goalie out there, but it didn’t go in.”

Tortorella projected confidence after the game. 

“They split here,” he said. “We’ve got to go in and try to get a game out of there. We’re going to keep our composure, get about our business. As I’ve said, this team has always been really good in these types of situations, so I have full confidence we’re going to try to find our way.”

But the Ducks have been the better team in two games now despite their 3-1 loss in Game 1. Game 3 is at Honda Center in Anaheim on Friday (9:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN360, SN, TVAS).

“Hundred percent,” Poehling said. “That’s exactly it. We didn’t like how Game 1 ended, but we liked our game. That’s hockey sometimes. You can play the right way, do all the right things and end up losing. But like we said, we kept the momentum going into Game 2, and now we’re headed home, which is fantastic.”