Pavel Dorofeyev scored two goals, including the game-winner 4:10 into overtime, as the Vegas Golden Knights took a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Dorofeyev, stationed alone on the backdoor by the left post, roofed a crossing pass from Jack Eichel for his first career playoff overtime winner.
“To be honest with you, I can’t tell you what happened there,” Dorofeyev said. “I just saw the puck, got my stick on it and thankfully it got in the net.
“To score first OT goal in the playoffs, it’s awesome. … It feels special.”
Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist, Eichel had two assists and Carter Hart finished with 34 saves for Vegas, which can advance to the Western Conference finals for the fourth time in the team’s nine-year history with a victory in Game 6 on Thursday in Anaheim.
Beckett Sennecke extended his goal streak to four games and Olen Zellweger also scored for Anaheim. Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish each added two assists and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves for the Ducks.
“It’s definitely a big letdown,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Tomorrow you wake up and it’s a new day. Certainly, there will be games in the playoffs that at the end of the game, your stomach feels like it’s rotten, and at the same time, it can happen just the opposite.”
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead at the 12:36 mark of the first period on Sennecke’s fifth goal of the playoffs, a rebound of a Gauthier shot from near the right boards.
The score came during a power play after Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb was called for a five-minute major and a game misconduct for interference on a hard late check of Ryan Poehling along the boards. Poehling, who has dealt with concussions in the past, had to be helped off the ice with an upper-body injury after the back of his head whiplashed into the glass.
A couple minutes after Dostal poke-checked the puck away from Mitch Marner on a breakaway near the end of the period, the Golden Knights tied it on a power-play goal by Dorofeyev.
Ducks forward Chris Kreider was trying to exit the Vegas offensive zone along the left boards when Dorofeyev stole the puck from behind, skated to the top of the slot and roofed a wrist shot into the top-left corner past Dostal’s blocker side.
Hertl, who snapped a 29-game goal drought with a score near the end of Sunday’s 4-3 loss, put the Golden Knights ahead, 2-1, early in the third period when he backhanded a rebound through Dostal’s pads.
Zellweger tied it with 3:05 remaining in regulation with a wrist shot from the middle of the left circle past Hart’s glove side for his first career playoff goal.
Sennecke’s five goals this postseason tie the Ducks’ rookie postseason record set by Bobby Ryan in 2009.
–Field Level Media
