LAS VEGAS (AP) — Beckett Sennecke, Leo Carlsson and Jansen Harkins scored, Lukas Dostal came 5.6 seconds from his first career playoff shutout and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Wednesday night to even their series at a game apiece.
The Ducks head home with the chance to grab hold of the best-of-seven second-round NHL playoff series, with Game 3 on Friday night. Vegas hopes to pull off a repeat of its first-round series when
the Golden Knights went to Utah at 1-1 before winning in six games.
Sennecke, a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy that goes to the league's top rookie, became the fourth Ducks player 20 or younger to score multiple goals in a postseason.
Dostal saved 23 shots and nearly had his third career shutout, including regular-season play, before Mark Stone scored a power-play goal in the closing seconds.
Carter Hart made 25 saves for the Golden Knights. Brett Howden's four-game goal streak ended, as did Ivan Barbarshev's seven-game point streak.
The Golden Knights' penalty kill gave them a chance. They killed all five penalties, including a stretch of 6:19 in the first period in which the Golden Knights took four penalties, including a double minor by Jack Eichel for high sticking. Vegas has killed off 19 straight penalties this postseason and is 24 of 25 overall.
But offense again was at a premium for Vegas, and coach John Tortorella adjusted his lines to try to find some life. Stone moved to the top line, William Karlsson shifted to the second and Pavel Dorofeyev dropped to the third.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville found some magic by moving Cutter Gauthier up to the second line with Mikael Granlund and Alex Killorn. That group had 20 scoring chances to one for Vegas in just 6:25 of action after two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. They finished with a 23-5 advantage.
The Ducks broke through in the second period, controlling play for about six minutes as Vegas struggled to keep the puck out of its zone. Then finally it was too much, Jeffrey Viel passing from below the goal line to Sennecke, camped out in front of the net for the 1-0 lead with 8:37 left in the period.
Troy Terry's backhand pass to Carlsson at 6:36 of the third period made it 2-0 for the Ducks. Harkins added an empty-net goal with 3:30 remaining.
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