The Vegas Golden Knights never had the upper hand over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 4— the Ducks recorded more shots on goal, threw more hits, and won the special teams battle. This was also the case in Game 1, but the Golden Knights found a way to win that one.
They didn’t get so lucky on Sunday. The Ducks capitalized on almost every scoring chance and survived a late push to secure a 4-3 win.
The series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is scheduled for 6:50 p.m. PST on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.
1. Off the Schneid
Tomáš Hertl, who was second on the team in goals last season, entered tonight on an all-time goalless streak. The last time he scored a goal was on March 4th, 29 games ago. If there’s one very shiny silver lining that Golden Knights fans should look at following this loss, it’s that it finally happened: Hertl scored a goal. The monkey is officially off his back.
“With goal scorers, an empty netter, a 6-on-5, it doesn’t matter [as long as] the puck goes in the net. Hopefully, it just releases him a little bit,” said Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella postgame. “He’s been close for quite a while. He bangs one in, and hopefully, that’ll help him as we move forward.”
2. Penalty Kill? Nope. Penalties are Killer.
Coming into Game 4, the Golden Knights were nearly perfect on the penalty kill. They were 26-for-27 this postseason and hadn’t allowed their opponent to score a power play goal since Game 3 against the Utah Mammoth. Tonight, they allowed two.
This Ducks team can do some real damage when up a man; in the First Round, they went 8-for-16 on the power play against the Edmonton Oilers. If they want to beat Anaheim, the Golden Knights need to ensure that tonight was a fluke and get their penalty kill back to what it was in the first three games of this series.
3. Glass Half Empty, Glass Half Full
There are two ways to look at this series. On one hand, the Golden Knights have been thoroughly outplayed in three of the four games this series. That’s concerning. They can’t quite seem to shut down Anaheim’s speed, and now the Ducks have broken through on the power play.
On the other hand, the Golden Knights have been thoroughly outplayed in three of the four games this series… and yet, it’s tied 2-2. They have been the second-best team on the ice, and the Golden Knights are still in a situation where all they have to do is win a best-of-three to advance to the Western Conference Final.
“I have zero worry about this team,” said Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella following the 4-3 loss. “As far as how we’re going to go about the next few games here, whatever it goes to, I have total trust.”