Video Credit: NHL

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs. Ducks- Game 44

Franchise Sports Media

 

The Vegas Golden Knights stayed in Southern California to take on the Anaheim Ducks for the second of a two game series on Sunday afternoon looking to keep pace with Colorado and continue their dominance of California teams.

 

Golden Knights vs Ducks
Photo Credit: NHL

Max Pacioretty set the tone early on in the game, tipping in a shot from Alec Martinez just three and a half minutes after the initial puck drop, bringing him to a team-leading twenty-two goals on the season. The Ducks answered back about three minutes later as Max Comtois scored a wrist shot finishing a 4 on 1 opportunity thanks to some good passing from Josh Manson and Rickard Rakell for his team-leading thirteenth goal of the season.

Twenty seconds later, Alex Tuch took a tripping penalty against Jakob Silfverberg, but the Knights had no problem handling the Duck’s powerplay, which has struggled all season long.

With 5:14 remaining, Alex Pietrangelo scored his fourth goal of the season with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to give his team the lead again. Chandler Stephenson was called for hooking against Max Jones with two minutes remaining, but VGK was able to kill that penalty off as well and went into the intermission with a one-goal lead despite being outshot 12-6 by the Ducks.

 

The second period saw a reversal of roles as Anaheim took three different penalties with the Knights scoring one of them and outshooting their opponents by the end of the period.

 

Golden Knights vs Ducks
Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports

Just over two and a half minutes into the middle frame, Nic Roy put Vegas up by two scoring a slapshot from in close for his fourth goal of the season with assists going to William Carrier and Zach Whitecloud. VGK were given their first chance with the man advantage 4:48 into the second period as Max Jones was called for hooking against Mattias Janmark but were unable to convert. Danton Heinen brought the Ducks back within one with just under six minutes to go burying a one-timer from the right circle, which caught Marc Andre Fleury sliding in the wrong direction to make the score 3-2.

The Knights were given their second opportunity on the powerplay with 2:05 remaining after Anaheim was called for too many men on the ice, and this time, they were able to take advantage of the special teams’ situation. Shea Theodore made a great outlet pass to spring Mark Stone on a breakaway where he made a beautiful move to go backhand-forehand before beating John Gibson, scoring his fifteenth goal of the season and give his team a two-goal lead for the second time in the game. Max Comtois took a tripping call against William Karlsson shortly after, but VGK did not score an additional powerplay goal to end the period.

 

Vegas finished the game with a strong performance not allowing the Ducks to score any more goals thanks in part to the penalty kill unit negating two penalties in the final twenty minutes.

 

VGK has been excellent closing out games this year when leading after two and had no problems continuing that trend and were even able to score an empty netter to ice the game. Nicolas Roy and Alex Pietrangelo took penalties just 3:45 apart in the middle of the period, but Anaheim was unable to take advantage of the special teams’ chances as the Vegas penalty kill looked as great as they have all season long.

With 1:27 remaining and the Ducks net vacant, Alex Tuch was able to score the dagger making a nice move around Rickard Rakell along the right boards before shooting the puck in from the blue line. The Knights got their sixth win in a row and improved to 26-5-1 against ANA, ARI, LA, SJS, STL this season, a big reason why they’re at the top of the standings and are now tied with Colorado for the division lead, with the Avalanche having one game in hand.

 

 

Looking Forward: 

 

VGK will get back at it Monday night against the Sharks returning home to T-Mobile Arena for the 2nd game in two days. As previously mentioned, VGK has been dominant against the Sharks this season and will look to continue that trend. The Sharks had a bit of a resurgence the past few weeks but still sit five points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Honda West Division. Expect them to play with a sense of desperation as they continue to fight for a chance at the postseason.

 

 

The Vegas Golden Knights will resume play Monday evening against The San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. and will be on AT&T Sportsnet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

 

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-D.J. Wood– Franchise Sports Media

Follow D.J. on Twitter @DJwoody97

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