Ducks use burst in second period to top Golden Knights

ANAHEIM --The Anaheim Ducks scored three goals in a 1:37 span in the second period before holding off the Vegas Golden Knights for a 4-3 win at Honda Center on Friday.

Cam Fowler and Devin Shore each had a goal and an assist, and John Gibson made 26 saves for Anaheim (16-18-4), which has won two of its past three games.
"When you can score in bunches and catch teams like that, it's certainly to your advantage," Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. "It was good to keep that momentum rolling at that time because when you're playing an elite team like Vegas], they are never out of the game."
***[WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Ducks highlights]*
Nate Schmidt scored twice, Mark Stone had two assists, and Malcolm Subban made 14 saves for Vegas (20-15-6), who has lost two straight and three of its past four (1-2-1).
"It ended up being a two-and-a-half minute span that cost us the game," Vegas forward Reilly Smith said. "They had a couple of fortunate bounces that ended up in the back of our net."
After Jonathan Marchessault gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 4:55 of the second period on a breakaway, Adam Henrique tied it 1-1 at 9:00 with a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle with one second left on a 5-on-3 power play.

Fowler gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 10:23 on the power play when his point shot redirected off Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland over Subban's left shoulder, and Max Comtois scored 14 seconds later to extend the lead to 3-1 with a deflection of Jacob Larsson's shot from the left point.
Anaheim's three goals in a span of 1:37 is tied for the third fastest in its history. The Ducks scored three goals in 1:36 against the Phoenix Coyotes on Nov. 27, 2010, and in 51 seconds against Phoenix on Dec. 23, 2001.
"It's hard to climb back, especially against a team where they don't give up a lot in the neutral zone, don't give you a lot of speed to make plays, and they've got good goaltenders," Schmidt said. "It makes it harder when you are trying to climb yourself out of a hole."
Shore scored at 9:46 of the third period to make it 4-1, beating Subban five-hole after Carter Rowney poked the puck away from Ryan Reaves.
Shore has been a healthy scratch in 16 games this season. When he has played, he has occupied all three forward positions and played on all four lines.
"He's taken on each role with a lot of enthusiasm," Eakins said.

Schmidt scored on a shot from the point to make it 4-2 at 18:08 before cutting it to 4-3 with 5.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
"There's going to be a little rust after a break, but our energy was there the whole time," Fowler said. "We were ready to go."

They said it

"We have a (seven-game) homestand coming up. If we can win a few games and push for the first spot in the Pacific, we'll be in a good spot going forward when it really matters." -- Golden Knights forward William Karlsson
"We stuck to our game plan. Every guy on the team, wherever we were going (over the break), we were excited to come back here and play the first game after Christmas. We did some really good things tonight and we have to keep building on that." -- Ducks forward Max Comtois

Need to know

The Golden Knights have lost two straight in regulation for the first time since Nov. 23-25. ... Stone has 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in his past nine games. ... Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty had an assist on Schmidt's second goal to give him 12 points (six goals, six assists) in the past nine games. ... Vegas forward Cody Glass played 11:55 after missing the past eight games with an upper-body injury. ... Smith had an assist on Marchessault's goal, his 200th in the NHL. ... Fowler has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past four games. His power-play goal was his 26th in the NHL, tying him with Chris Kunitz for 10th in Ducks history. ... Shore's goal was his 100th point in the NHL. ... Anaheim is 2-7-1 against Vegas, including 1-4-0 at Honda Center.

What's next

Golden Knights:Host the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)
Ducks:Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, PRIME, NBCSP, NHL.TV)