Recap: The Golden Knights were looking to take 1-0 series lead with a victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 1. Vegas was outshot but kept Anaheim off the scoreboard. After 20 minutes the game remained scoreless.
Brett Howden opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the postseason. Anaheim drew a couple of penalties but Vegas promptly killed them off and held their 1-0 advantage.
Anaheim briefly tied Game 1, but Vegas responded right back. Ivan Barbashev snapped the tie to give Vegas a late 2-1 edge. With seconds winding down the Golden Knights added a 190-foot empty net goal.
The Golden Knights take a 1-0 series lead by defeating the Ducks 3-1 at T-Mobile Arena. Game 2 of the second round seven-game series is scheduled for Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 630PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: For the most part, the game was played at the Ducks pace and style. VGK struggled to win to races, left the neutral zone too open, and allowed the ANA forecheck to create some turnovers. Fortunately, goalies are people too, and Hart was excellent behind VGK’s defense to clean up each and every mistake (with a little help from Jackson LaCombe’s unwillingness to shoot). In the end, the game came down to a blown call by the linesman that led directly to VGK’s go-ahead goal. He missed a clear icing call and Dorofeyev and Barbashev jumped all over it. (Recap by Ken)
Upcoming stories from Game 1 of the second round series between the Vegas Golden Knights vs Anaheim Ducks at T-Mobile Arena.
- Take the win, must be better moving forward
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Linesman
** Brett Howden
* Carter Hart
https:/twitter.com/SinBinVegas/status/2051516886794514576
rb7
Hart saved them, especially in the first 10 minutes. and all might afterwatd too. the Vgk were slow and on their heels for large parts of the game.
wrong Ken…..the ref Dave Jackson explained it. Eichel beat the player to the puck, and it is NOT automatic that the top of the circle is a whistle if the defender slows up and quits on the puck.
Ken Boehlke
Please stop. You are wrong about the call. It’s clearly icing and there’s no debate. It’s ok. VGK took advantage of it, which happens in hockey all the time. Dave Jackson’s has never once said a call is wrong, thus, he is as unreliable a source as there is out there.
Puck Collector
Ken: If you look at the NHL Rule Book under Section 10 — Game Flow and go to rule 81.1, which addresses “icing,” it clearly states that the first one to the red dot wins the race — and this is important — as long as the linesman determines the puck will have crossed the goal line. However, there is also rule 81.5, which addresses “no icing,” and I believe it is this rule that the linesman relied on in the Lacombe/Eichel situation. It states in part: “If, in the opinion of the Linesperson, any player (other than the goalkeeper) of the opposing team is able to play the puck before it passes his goal line, but has not done so, play shall continue and the icing violation shall not be called.” My guess is that the linesman made a judgment that Lacombe could have played the puck before it reached the goal line but chose not to. I can see where he might have held that opinion even though Lacombe appeared to be first to the dot. The ref probably felt that had Lacombe not stopped/slowed down and leaned back into Eichel, he could have skated right through and collected the puck before it reached the goal line.
KnightWatch
Was Not a blown call.
Dave Jackson explained why the icing was waved off.
We had a step on the defense. Their guy stopped skating.
DeezNutz
Carter Hart’s best performance as a Knight. He stole them a game and when he has a stinker at some point the players better pay him back with tons of goals. PK/defense/goaltending all really solid tonight. Need to play much better if they want to win the series. I think VGK has several more gears.
Pierre S Martin
The linesman did a Quenneville – Saw something and looked the other way…………..
KnightWatch
Expect a different Game 2.
While our PK has been stellar, some bad puck management and giving them
time and space isn’t a recipe that can continue.
Ducks were definitely better tonight.
Hart bailed us out and a prime reason for this W.
Richie-Rich
I was behind Dostal in Section 11 in periods 1 and 3. Ducks style of play? Stolen game?
Wow, I didn’t see it that way at all. I saw our team play an excellent game, defended well and controlled the pace.
There’s a reason why the Ducks were 3rd in the Pacific and it showed tonight.
Pistol Pete
I agree R-R I was at the game and thought both teams were hard to play against. Hart was excellent however I say the better team is the one that puts the puck in the net more than the other. They outshot us but big effing deal. When we lose we often out shoot the other team. This one went the other way. Good win on a great game winning pass by Dorofeyev. Also great pass by Marner to Howden for goal #1 (that is becoming a good combo) and what a long range EN by Marner.
Richie-Rich
And PP – let’s not forget the pass from Eichel to Barbashev that he gaffed on. They had a huge number of chances late in the 2nd period as well missing by inches on both sides of the posts by mere inches, one was a very close Stone tip in. On the other hand, Anaheim missed a wide open net in this game. I am not sure who the skater was but that was a huge miss.
Leonard Wise
I think our penalty kill was excellent and of course Hart was outstanding. We did well in front of the net. I don’t like our line 3 Hertal doing nothing same for Koli. Need Smith on that line. Also Jack was invisible. I know we can play better than this offensely. Marner was excellent. Miss Lazans physicality.
TS
I ” mised” that icing no- call .
Ok, i fell asleep.
Question: why didn’t the Anaheim coach challenge the call??
TS
I mean, if that call was wrong, wouldn’t the Quacks’ video review guy have caught it and a challenge ensued??
TS
Aha. I get it now. A coach can’t challenge a no- call! Only if a call is made, can he challenge. Still learning the rules of this awesome sport!!
Richie-Rich
A no goal after an off-sides is sort of challenging a no-call. No call was made on the offsides and the team that got scored on is challenging that no-call. This icing incident is an example of a bad call that apparently there is no recourse to challenge. Could be a possible rules change in the future. I hope not because the more rules you have the more disruption to the flow of the game. With something like this it could take up to 5 minutes or more to review.
TS
Rr, All good points to.consider, thnx! That whole thing with calls is….complicated…
FG
A couple observations
Eichel was nonchalant, laissez faire and seemed almost disinterested. He needs to play with McKinnon/McDavid intensity, or the Ducks will have a real chance of winning the series. Perhaps he is injured.
Appreciate Marner who is actually playing out of position, but has been VGK’s best forward.
The third defensive pair is a liability, Korczak has been a disappointment, and is a major step down from Hague/Whitecloud from the Cup run. The top four D will eventually run out of gas, and will get exposed in the next series if VGK win.
Benching Reilly Smith is a baffling decision. Jfresh ranked all forwards in scoring chance contributions in the first round. Of 155 players, Reilly Smith was #15 (top 10%). Keegan Kolesar was #147 (bottom top 10%). Kolesar had two hits last night and this does not appear to be a physical series. Kolesar was the worst forward by game score in the first round. It should be an easy decision.
Be thankful VGK won a game they probably shouldn’t have.
Richie-Rich
Wow, I am not sure how you could come up with this negativity. This game should have been a solid 4 or 5 goal game for the VGK. Both teams did an excellent job of keeping players boxed out from in front of their goal. At no time during this game did I think Anaheim was the better team on the ice. And you can ask PP, I am usually the first to call them out for poor play. The only negative thing were the 3 penalties that were completely avoidable. A delay of game by #4 was ridiculous and Kolesar obvious slash was just as bad.
Pistol Pete
I was at the game. Eichel was good +2 and landed a shot. You don’t get a point every game and this was one of those sometimes you get more than one point as he did in three games so far. He has nine points in seven games tied with Marner. You really have to watch carefully and see all the little things these elite players do in a game. It’s not just the big point getting plays.
Pistol Pete
I mean how could one miss Eichel’s hustle in beating the icing call that led to the GWG? It was a game the VGK deserved to win. I predict we outshoot them on Wednesday.
Pistol Pete
I do though agree about scratching Kolesar for Smith. Originally I had envisioned:
Marner-Karlsson-Stone
Howden-Hertl-Smith
Now I get keeping Marner at center with Howden on his wing:
Howden-Marner-Stone
Hertl-Karlsson-Smith
One might expect Torts to know to reunite Karlsson and Smith? Hopefully for game 2?
Give Marner credit for being so effective at center with which he came in with zero experience.
Btw VGK excellent once again on the PK 4-0 against a PP that came into the series hot. I want to say VGK had more looks in their two PP’s as they did in their four? Dostal was tough to beat this game.
Richie-Rich
I was 11 rows behind that play and Eichel clearly was first to the puck from my viewpoint. We absolutely outplayed the Ducks in this game and the key was our defense, goaltending, team speed. The desire to win was on display for the full 60 minutes, something that was absent during the last half of the regular season.
Larry
Pete, Eichel is probably our best player though Marner is taking a run at that label more and more, Eichel is our leader and as he goes so should VGK, so to praise him for having 1 shot in the game is a bit of a reach, I’m way more concerned with his penchant for not managing the puck more effectively and efficiently, and that WTF blind drop pass back to the blue line which creates transition chances going the other way. Hopefully he can start clearing these issues up and even more so start putting the puck in the net!
still believe
I echo those thoughts about Eichel and Marner too maybe there will be internal competition between the two and make Eichel pissed off enough he elevates his game and show it’s his team, it’s a nice thought anyway and I still believe.
JB
No doubt we were outplayed and caught a big break. Hart stole that game for us. We better wake-up on Wednesday!
Pistol Pete
I was at the game and watched it intently we were not that “out played”. Both teams were hard to play against. We scored three their one we out played them! Their goalie was good too. Just watch us outshoot them game 2 to go up 2-0! Now that may not happen but no harm in thinking it will call it the power of positive thinking!
Richie-Rich
PP and I rarely agree because I actually criticize this team when they deserve it. We were both at this game and I never had a doubt that we were the better team through all 60 minutes of this contest. Our defense was better, our goaltending was better and the desire to push offense was there for a full 60 minutes. That push at the end of period 2 nearly resulted in 2 more goals. I thought that we might win this series in 6 games. I now believe that it might go 5 with us moving on to the Conference Championship. The talent that was acquired is finally starting to show. My biggest concern is keeping Stone healthy. People need to realize just how many turnovers and opportunities he creates with that fantastic stick handling of his. We also don’t have a viable back up goaltender. Personally, I think Hill has been injured for most of this year and has been playing that way. Maybe this time off is beneficial.
Pistol Pete
R-R I do find it tough to criticize them as they always seem to play hard and with heart. Why things were not going well at the end of Cassidy’s term I can’t be sure but I suspect they were somehow trapped constrained by his system and were not going north as directly as they could. Torts fixed that.
Larry
We were outplayed last night, not by a lot but was still the case, and bottom line attained the victory.
Our penalty kill units definitively outplayed the Ducks power play which was a key to this game, will be even better in Game 2 if those careless penalties are eliminated all together.
Both goalies were excellent, thankfully Hart was at near the top of his game and was the number 1 star.
Clearly VGK caught a break with the non-icing call, we can all argue back and forth , but the overwhelming majority of the time it is called icing, and a fairly high percentage of the time they actually get it wrong who was the first to be near the puck , it’s almost like a automatic to award it to the defender.
What was clearly wrong was the emphatic lack of signaling or a call by the linesman to waive the icing off, thus alerting the players what had taken place, yes one should play to hearing a whistle, but it was pretty clear to Lacome and Eichel that an icing call was forthcoming.
And who is kidding who, if the skate was on the other foot we’d all be screaming bloody murder at the top of our lungs lol!!
Richie-Rich
LMAO – My wife and I are exiting down the escalator and some slob wearing a Ducks t-shirt (not a jersey) is in the other escalator and leans over with tears in his eyes and says that we got lucky tonight and that we won’t win another game in this series! This fat slob was actually crying. If I had a tissue I’d have given him one. He was clearly looking for an “interaction”, which I ignored. I simply said, “tough loss tonight”…… I have been a season ticket holder since year 1 and have never had an interaction with a fan from an opposing team. Very sad.
Rrale
That win was maybe some of the puck luck VGK have not gotten in the past. Hart played an excellent game. Eichel looked like he played most of the game in second gear. He did seem to play fast at times (think of non-icing call). Passes still seemed a little off and slow. VGK PK played outstanding against the Ducks. I agree with Pete on how many times VGK has outshoot the opposing team and lost. The other day one team had nine shots and won. At the end of the game all that matters is which team has the most goals.
Pistol Pete
That game elevated Hart’s postseason SV% to over.900 (2.49/.910).
HSK edges COL in 2OT to even the series 1-1. Connelly assists on the GWG. Top D prospect Viliam Kmec scores for a go ahead goal 3-2 but COL scored eventually sending it to OT.
Pistol Pete
#16 is beginning to address concerns about his playoffs performance. That was truly an elite assist on Barbashev’s GWG and he did on the Eichel line. Five points in seven games including a hat trick.
Richie-Rich
I am going to have to go back and look at this “icing” because Ken is absolutely incensed about it. I was 11 rows away and thought that Eichel was 1st to the puck. Was it close? Yes. Now, I need to go back and take a closer look at it in slow motion to see it.
Richie-Rich
After watching the play again, unless there is some quirky rule that I don’t know about, that was definitely an icing. Pay back for the 5 minute major I guess was on the menu. Thank you Hockey Gods.
Richie-Rich
The idea about who the ref thought would be first to the puck by the red dot? Is that in the rule book? If so, then it wasn’t apparent that the Duck skater was going to be first. In any case, I believe that 99 times out of 100 that’s icing.
Puck Collector
Richie-Rich: Please read my comment above. I address the NHL icing and no icing rules in detail. The race to the red dot is not the only determining factor involved in an icing call, which is why so many people seem confused about these rules. For the record I have attended all but 13 home games in VGK history dating to year one, including every playoff game. I frankly do not understand the overreaction to this particular call. The refs Monday night missed a boat load of tripping and cross checking infractions on both sides and have done so ever since I attended my first NHL game in 1970. Don’t get me started on the NFL and NBA. The fact is that any game officiated by humans is going to have numerous missed calls and many of them could have changed the outcome of a contest, including the game Monday night.
TS
Absolutely, Puck!!
Richie-Rich
Bad call, but seeing it in hindsight is an advantage that the ref didn’t have in real time. For a split second Eichel had the inside position and that is exactly when he waved off icing. It was a bad call. Period. It happens. Shit happens. 5 minute incorrect calls happen too. You keep playing to the whistle. That’s what professionals do and that is what Lacombe did when he tried to pass the puck back up the boards from below the goal line and turned it over. If he thought that icing was called he would have simply touched up the puck like they usually do. No, LaCombe did not hear a whistle and he played that puck and the play counted. It is the end of the discussion for me. I just hope the Ducks are so incensed over it that it is in their heads and throws them off their game.
Larry
Actually touching up the puck is not required in today’s game, most times just have to be in the vicinity.
Not sure when that rule changed, but once upon a time a player had to literally touch the puck for it to be icing or waved off, this of course tended to lead to physicality, scrums and fights which is obviously frowned upon in today’s game, even though I miss that aspect of old-style hockey the icing rule happens to be a very good one.
Richie-Rich
Larry, I am not talking about a rule here. What I am saying is that LaCombe clearly did not hear a whistle and he passed that puck out from below the goal line up the boards and turned it over. What I am saying is that he didn’t stop playing like everyone is saying happened.
vgk21
kudos to–
Dowd for his Pk faceoff excellence.
Marner and Howden combo shine again.
9-16-49 hustle play unlocks tie game.
and Hart saves the bacon.
btw—- here is what Mitch Marner said after the game, and I completely agree with him.
“I don’t think anyone in that locker room is satisfied with that win,” Marner said. “We know we can play a lot better. I don’t think we got to our game at all. We gave them some good looks, and Carter made some massive saves.”
Pistol Pete
Always best to err on the side of “we could have played better”.
Richie-Rich
I think the VGK is clearly understating their performance. Could they have been better? Absolutely! More consistent in the OZ could have been the difference in that blown call not mattering at all.
hdbiker7851
This missed “icing call” has over shadowed the fact Vegas was lucky to win. At times it is better to be lucky than good and tonight was one of those evening. The afforia from some that in their opinion Vegas played a great game is obviously in the eyes of the preceivers and it is understandable that same opinion isn’t shared by all. There is no question had that particular played occured against Vegas all would feel differently. It really at this point is irrelevant a iwin is a win and they were lucky. They will need to step up some to win the next game and the series as that won’t happen if they don’t. On to a win Wednesday evening and if there are any “blown” calls hope they go in favor of Vegas.
TS
Heck, yeah, Hdbiker!! Refs make judgement calls (. Or No- calls) in EVERY game! It happens often, and to every team.
What’ll be next– AI robot refs calling the games??
.
Richie-Rich
Baseball has the automated strike zone now and catchers and batters can challenge the umpire call. Football has implemented it as well. LOL, I would like to see Optimus Robot Referees getting slammed all over the ice!!
TS
RR, imagine the scrums!!!
Canada
Great game , we were a little wobbly for the first 15 minutes but after that we settled in . Most of the Ducks shots were on the outside and Hart handled them easily. We slowed them down in the neutral zone so their speed wasn’t even noticeable our PK neutralized the pp a big part of their game . Question who is responsible for coaching the pk this guy knows his stuff and has our boys on top of their game . With Karlson back this improves what is already a formidable team ,so much talent and they are gelling. I think the Ducks have no idea what’s coming . If the Ducks believe they were cheated by the missed call , good we still put the puck in the net . That will be the least of their worries. Eichel looks like he makes a lot of mistakes going into the o zone but man does he come back hard i think he was the one of the best defensive players next to Hart . What a fun game to watch Torts was going on on how bad we played i didn’t see that and i don’t think the players felt that way other than the slow start . He is playing some head game , these guys are pretty smart hope he doesn’t lose the room.
Richie-Rich
Interesting on the icing that should have been called. No whistle. Everyone said that the Ducks stopped playing including Eichel. What I saw was LaCombe pass the puck out and up the boards turning it over. Normally, if you think it’s icing you see players just “touch it up”. There was no whistle and it didn’t appear to me that anyone stopped playing. Icing call missed – Definitely. A bad call that led to a VGK goal – but it wasn’t because the Ducks stopped playing.
Also, the refs mistake was that the puck bounced to the corner not toward the goal. For 1 second Eichel had an inside edge and I think that’s when the ref called off icing, BUT the puck wasn’t on the inside it was on the outside. Bad judgment call by the ref.
Lastly, going 0-4 on the power play? Credit the Knights Penalty Kill for the Ducks losing this game.
Richie-Rich
Let’s talk about the play of Brett Howden. 9 face off wins, 2 face off losses in this game. Howden is playing outstanding hockey. Has this guy finally reached his true potential?
Ice Warrior
I have to echo what Canada said about the Ducks obsessing about the “icing or not” call. If that is what they’re concerned about instead of 0/4 power plays or one of their stars having a brain freeze in front of the net, they’re going to be in for a nasty surprise.
Larry
Apparently no lineup changes for tonight as per line rushes at practice!