Mitch Marner on Thursday scored a tremendous goal 62 seconds after the opening faceoff, while Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice in the third period as the Vegas Golden Knights cruised into the NHL Western Conference finals with a 5-1 victory over Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of their second round series.
Brett Howden scored his third short-handed goal of the playoffs and Shea Theodore got a power-play goal during a 3-0 first period for the Golden Knights, who reached the third round of the NHL post-season for the first time since they won their lone Stanley Cup championship in 2023 — and for the fifth time in this charmed expansion franchise’s nine seasons of existence.
“You go into it and you want to score first, especially being on the road,” said Theodore, an original member of the Knights after Anaheim traded him to Vegas in 2017. “I thought we responded well. We played great the first 15 minutes, and that’s what we had to do... Just a veteran group. We had the right mindset coming in, and it was good to see the results.”
Photo: AP
Marner played a role in all three of Vegas’ first-period goals while raising his NHL-leading playoff point total to 18, and Game 5 overtime goal-scorer Dorofeyev put the game away with a huge third period. Carter Hart made 31 saves as the veteran-laden Golden Knights ended the upstart Ducks’ first playoff appearance since 2018.
“It obviously feels great,” said Marner, who got labeled a playoff underachiever while his Toronto Maple Leafs never reached a conference final. “We worked extremely hard for all these little goals that we set throughout the year, and another one [is] achieved, but obviously the work just keeps getting harder and harder.”
Vegas face an exponentially bigger challenge in the Colorado Avalanche, who won the Presidents’ Trophy and improved to 8-1 in the post-season on Wednesday by ousting the Minnesota Wild in five games.
Photo: AP
Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, whose return from a seven-year playoff drought ended when their young roster was unable to match the veteran Knights’ playoff poise in three losses over the final four games.
Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots for Anaheim, who could not overcome another poor first period in Game 6, ending their encouraging first season under coach Joel Quenneville.
“Vegas got better every single game,” Quenneville said. “They played well. They checked well. They deserved to win. Tonight was kind of what happened too many times this year, where we give up a couple of quick ones early, and it’s a tough comeback against a team that knows how to play hockey.”
In Buffalo, New York, Captain Nick Suzuki and the Montreal Canadiens’ top line brought the offense to put them one win from advancing to the NHL Eastern Conference finals.
Suzuki and Jake Evans capped a three-goal second period surge by scoring 68 seconds apart in their 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, giving the Canadiens a 3-2 lead in their second-round playoff series.
Montreal did not lead until Evans swept a loose puck over the goal line behind Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to put the Canadiens up 4-3 with 3 minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the second period.
Suzuki scored 10 seconds into a power-play opportunity by converting Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-handed pass from the end boards and beating Luukkonen through the legs with a shot from the lower right circle.
“The power-play goal was huge, felt like it gave us a little bit of breathing room,” Suzuki said. “Just kept trying to put the foot on the gas a little bit, too.”
Demidov, Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson and Alexandre Texier also scored for Montreal, who are to host Game 6 today.
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