LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ivan Barbashev and the Golden Knights played on after a disputed no-call, and his goal off a terrific pass from Pavel Dorofeyev with 4:58 left put Vegas ahead for good in its 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night in the opener of their second-round playoff series.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven Western Conference series is Wednesday night in Las Vegas.
Barbashev took advantage after officials did not call icing, which didn't
sit well with Ducks coach Joel Quenneville. It was Barbashev's pass from behind the red line to teammate Jack Eichel, who was battling Anaheim's Jackson LaCombe for the puck, that linesman Bevan Mills waved off for icing.
Officials declined to comment to a pool reporter.
“Clearly, I disagreed with the call,” said Quenneville, who said he did not receive an explanation from the officials. “Their guy stopped skating, which really made me annoyed.”
Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said he couldn't see the play from his spot behind the bench. Barbashev kept skating once no call was made as Ducks players appeared to slow up.
“I tried to put the puck deep and I thought I saw Jack on the far side going deep and I thought for a second he (beat LaCombe) and that's why they waved it off,” Barbashev said. “Jack put pressure on him, they turned it over and Pav made a great play.”
Vegas' Brett Howden extended his goal streak to a career-best four games, his fifth during that span. Mitch Marner, who assisted on Howden's goal early in the second period, added a 162-foot empty-net goal with 6 seconds left, and Carter Hart stopped 33 shots for the Golden Knights.
Mikael Granlund scored for Anaheim, and Lukas Dostal made 19 saves.
The Golden Knights prevailed despite being outshot 34-22.
“They were the better team tonight,” Tortorella said. “I thought as the game went on, we started finding our game, but we couldn't find it completely. ... It's a find-a-way league. We found a way to win, and I'm certainly not going to apologize for the win.”
Vegas’ penalty kill continued to shine, extending its stretch to 14 straight without giving up a goal by keeping the Ducks off the scoreboard on four chances. Anaheim converted 8 of 16 power plays in the first round against Edmonton. The Golden Knights are 19 of 20 on penalty kills.
Golden Knights center William Karlsson, out since sustaining a lower-body injury Nov. 8 against the Ducks, returned to the lineup. The crowd roared when Karlsson was shown on the video board after taking the ice less than three minutes into the game.
The Ducks dominated the early action, outshooting Vegas 11-6 in the first period and then controlling the puck to open the second. But the Golden Knights scored first with their first shot on goal in the second when Marner made a pinpoint pass from the right circle to Howden, who scored easily from the left side of the net.
It didn’t appear the lead would last long when Ducks top-line center Leo Carlsson made a dazzling spin move to set up LaCombe with an an open net. LaCombe, however, inexplicably passed up the shot for a pass, and the Golden Knights avoided what appeared would be a sure Ducks goal.
Just as time was starting to run out on the Ducks in the third, they didn’t waste their next opportunity. LaCombe made up for his previous gaffe by walking in on Hart before delivering a pass to Granlund, who was open in the right circle and scored at 13:57.
The tie didn’t last long, with Dorofeyev passing to Barbashev to put the Golden Knights ahead 2-1 just 65 seconds later.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
