Kreider scores twice, Ducks hand Golden Knights 5th loss in row

ANAHEIM -- Chris Kreider scored two goals for the Anaheim Ducks in a 4-3 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Honda Center on Sunday.

Ryan Poehling had a goal and an assist, Jacob Trouba had two assists, and Lukas Dostal made 28 saves for the Ducks (29-23-3), who had lost two in a row. Troy Terry, who had missed the previous 11 games because of an upper-body injury, also had two assists.

“We kept it real simple," Kreider said. "Trying to get pucks behind them, and when the opportunity presented itself, get to the net and get our bodies to the net, too, and just follow up on plays.”

Mitch Marner, Ivan Barbashev and Tomas Hertl scored, Mark Stone had two assists, and Adin Hill made 19 saves for the Golden Knights (25-16-14), who have lost five in a row (0-3-2), including 3-2 against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday, and seven of their past eight (1-5-2).

"I thought we made some good plays, but overall just not good enough," Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore said. "There's two games left before the (Olympic) break and we want to be feeling good going into it."

Kreider gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 13:21 of the first period. Pavel Mintyukov attempted to dump the puck into the corner in Vegas' zone, but it hit Ben Hutton and caromed to Poehling, who skated into the puck before having his centering pass deflect in off the right skate of Kreider.

The Golden Knights have allowed the first goal in three straight games and eight of their past 10.

“Really good start," Kreider said. "Detailed game, honest game, defense-first game."

Kreider made it 2-0 at 1:10 of the second period when he redirected in a point shot from Trouba.

"It's not the start we wanted," Golden Knights forward Alexander Holtz said. "We talked a lot about coming out hot, so it's tough when you're a couple goals behind and you have to chase all the time. It's something we've got to figure out in the next couple games."

Cutter Gauthier extended the lead to 3-0 at 4:32, scoring a power-play goal with a snap shot short side from the right circle.

"In hindsight, that's the one that hurt us. It should have never went in the net," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We needed that (save) at the end of the day if we were going to get points tonight."

Marner scored for the third straight game to make it 3-1 at 9:47 of the second. Stone's centering pass from behind the net hit off the skate of Ducks defenseman Ian Moore at the left post and deflected toward the other side of the crease, where Marner shot it into an open net.

Barbashev also scored for the third straight game to cut it to 3-2 at 10:40 of the third period. Dostal saved Barbashev's initial one-timer from in close, but the puck trickled behind him, allowing Barbashev to jam it across the goal line.

"You know they're going to press," Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. "They're going to be pressing offensively, gambling a little bit, taking the offensive side of a lot of pucks, and I think some of the clears we weren't great at, but at the same time, that's what you do when you're down, you take some risks and there are some rewards at the other end of it if you get through it."

Poehling scored into an empty net to make it 4-2 at 18:53 before Hertl scored with six seconds left for the 4-3 final.

"It seems like over the past little bit we've been chasing way too much and we've been relying on our comebacks," Theodore said. "It's not good enough. We have to start better."

NOTES: Anaheim swept the season series against Vegas for the first time. ... Ducks forward Mason McTavish returned after missing five games with an upper-body injury. He was a minus-2 with three shots in 14:46 of ice time.