What was at stake for the Anaheim Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 in Anaheim on Sunday night? Teams that take a 3–1 lead in a best-of-seven series win the series 90 percent of the time (247 out of 275). Additionally, if a Game 4 win comes en route to taking a 3–1 series lead, that team wins 92 percent (151 of 165) of the series. Given these percentages, the pressure was on the Anaheim Ducks (2-2), who rose to the occasion and scored two power play goals en route to a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights (2-2).
Both teams were without captains. Anaheim was missing Radko Gudas for the seventh consecutive game, while the Golden Knights were without captain Mark Stone due to an undisclosed injury. Stone played only 4:24 minutes in Game 3 before being sidelined with a non-contact injury. Without Stone in the lineup this season, the Golden Knights were 8–9–5 and a winning percentage of .519, while with him they were 31–17–12 and a winning percentage of .593.
The scoring began when Anaheim finally figured out the Vegas penalty kill and got the first goal of the game via the power play. The Anaheim power play was 0-11 before Game 4, but that changed at 8:43 of the first when Beckett Seneke (4) blasted a slap shot through Carter Hart’s five-hole from the top of the right circle to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead. It was Seneca’s third consecutive game with a goal in the series. Not only was the Golden Knights’ penalty kill perfect in the series before Seneke’s goal, it had killed 21 consecutive penalties and 26 of 27.
Just 1:40 into Seneke’s goal, the Golden Knights got a power play goal of their own, tying the game at one point. Jack Eichel took a slap shot from the top of the left circle that bounced off the glove of Anaheim netminder Lucas Dostal. Before Dostal could get the rebound, Pavel Dorofeyev (5) beat Anaheim forward Mikael Granlund on net, attacked the puck and put it into the net for Vegas’ third power play goal of the series in ten chances.
While Granlund could not tie Dorofeyev on the tying goal, after only 5:05, he atoned for his sins by scoring a goal on an awkward bounce. Granlund (4) fired a wrist shot from inside the left circle that hit the stick of Golden Knights forward Cole Smith, causing the stick to slip out of his hand. The deflection of Smith’s stick changed the trajectory of the puck, bouncing off the ice just past Hart and then through his tool to give Anaheim a 2–1 lead.
Vegas is known for its many high-profile magic shows, with William Carlson performing magic tricks such as Shin Lim delivering a pass to Brett Howden for a goal. Karlsson was the first to forecheck and got the puck on his stick under the goal line. As he was enduring a big hit from Jacob Trouba, he somehow delivered a backhand pass from an extremely tight area to Howden (7), who beat his man in front of the net and Karlsson was able to chip the pass over Dostal to tie the game at two. The goal came at 4:04 and Howden tied Minnesota’s Matt Boldy for most postseason goals. Mitch Marner picked up a secondary assist, moving him ahead of Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov for most points in the postseason with 15 points. Marner finished the night with three points, giving him seven points in his last two games.
Anaheim got its third power play opportunity of the game at the end of the second frame and solved the Vegas penalty kill for the second time in the game. After Seneca entered a beautiful area and did some perimeter passing, Alex Killorn (4) collected a loose puck in the bottom of the right circle, drove hard toward the net, and then fired a wrist shot that went under Hart’s left hand and in at 17:58 of the second.
After trailing by a goal to start the third, the Golden Knights started the frame on a power play due to Seneca taking a cross-checking call at the 20-minute mark of the second period. However, Anaheim was able to kill a penalty and then maintain that momentum to take a two-goal lead shortly thereafter. At the 3:43 mark of the third, Anaheim defenseman Ian Moore (1) took a slap shot from the left point with a puck that was near the rim. The shot deflected off the back of the net and deflected off Hart’s blocker, giving Anaheim a 4-2 lead. It was the first career playoff goal for the 24-year-old Moore, who was a healthy scratch for Anaheim in Games 2 and 3.
With Hart pulled for the extra attacker, Tomas Hertl (1) got on the board at 18:56 of the third minute to make things interesting, scoring his first goal in 29 games, on March 4, but it proved to be too little, too late, as the Golden Knights iced the puck with 10 seconds remaining, dashing any hopes of tying the game.
Three-to-two odds for blackjack in a Vegas casino are the best you can get. Likewise, whichever team wins Game 5 on Tuesday will take a three-to-two series lead and that team will certainly like its chances of going to the Western Conference Finals.
notes
- Anaheim’s win after leading by multiple goals was the Ducks’ 24th consecutive win in playoff history.
- With Mark Stone in the lineup, the Golden Knights are averaging 3.32 goals per game. His average without Stone in the lineup is 2.96. Similarly, the power play percentage is 22.6% with Stone in the lineup, but only 17.0% with Stone out.
statistics
- Shots on goal gave Anaheim a 23–21 victory.
- Faceoff win percentages were 52.9 percent for Vegas and 47.1 percent for Anaheim.
- Vegas was 1-3 on the power play, while Anaheim was 2-4.
- The Hits defeated Anaheim 34–27.
- Vegas had a 14-13 edge in blocked shots.
- Vegas had four more giveaways than Anaheim, 14 versus 10.
- Vegas won the takeaway battle 7-5.
#Stone #pelting #Golden #Knights #Drop #Game #Captain #Mark #Stone
