Beckett Sennecke and Alex Killorn both netted one goal and one assist to pace the host Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night and even their Stanley Cup playoff series.
Mikael Granlund and Ian Moore also scored for Anaheim, which tied the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal at 2-2.
Goaltender Lukas Dostal made 18 saves and Cutter Gauthier collected three assists.
“We’ve got momentum and things are going good as long as you can keep it,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “That’s better than chasing it.”
Pavel Dorofeyev, Brett Howden and Tomas Hertl scored for the Golden Knights, who will host Game 5 on Tuesday.
Goalie Carter Hart stopped 19 shots, Mitch Marner collected three assists and Jack Eichel contributed two assists.
The score was tied 2-2 late in the second period when Killorn gave Anaheim its third lead with its second power-play tally of the tilt. Killorn gained the puck at the bottom of the right circle and squeezed a shot into the net with 2:02 remaining in the second period.
The Ducks failed to score on the power play in the first three games of the series, blanked during 11 opportunities.
Moore extended the Anaheim lead with his first career playoff goal. Shortly after Anaheim killed a penalty, Moore found the twine with a point shot at 3:43 of the third period.
“Going down a couple of goals is always tough to come back,” Vegas forward Colton Sissons said. “We’ve done a pretty good job throughout the year and playoffs, too. Yeah, it’s tough.”
Hertl snapped a 29-game goal drought dating back to early March by tucking into the cage a loose puck with 64 seconds remaining in regulation to make it a one-goal game, but the Golden Knights could not complete the comeback.
After losing the last game, the Ducks were looking to have a strong early pushback and were rewarded when Sennecke opened the scoring by unloading a shot from the top of the right circle for the power-play goal at the 8:43 mark.
“That was a big focus for us. … It was nice to see a couple of those go in and get our power play rolling again,” Sennecke said.
Dorofeyev responded with a power-play goal of his own just past the period’s midway point. Dostal could not catch the point shot and Dorofeyev pounced on the loose puck.
Granlund made it a 2-1 game five minutes later when a turnover resulted in him gaining the puck in the slot and his shot ricocheted off a defender’s stick and bounded past Hart.
Vegas tied the game again when William Karlsson slipped a nifty pass to the front of the net for Howden, and it was easily converted at 4:04 of the second period.
The Golden Knights were without captain Mark Stone, who suffered an undisclosed injury late in the first period of Game 3. Brandon Saad drew into the lineup.
“I have zero worry about this team, as far as how we’re going to go about the next few games here,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “Wherever it goes to, I have total trust.”
–Field Level Media
