Chris Kreider, Ducks go up early, hold off Golden Knights
Chris Kreider scored two goals, Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Poehling each scored one and the Anaheim Ducks got back to their winning ways with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
Troy Terry had two assists in his return from an 11-game absence because of an upper body injury and Lukas Dostal made 28 saves in the Ducks' fourth consecutive home victory. Anaheim moved back into playoff position with the win.
The Ducks entered the contest on a two-game losing streak that immediately followed a seven-game winning streak. Anaheim finished the season series with three victories in three tries over Vegas, including two in overtime.
Mitch Marner, Ivan Barbashev and Tomas Hertl scored goals and Adin Hill made 19 saves for the Golden Knights, who matched a season-high five-game losing streak (0-3-2). Vegas also is 1-5-2 since a seven-game winning streak that ended Jan. 19.
Kreider gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 13:21 of the first period when Poehling's pass in front of the net deflected off his skate and over the line.
Kreider turned a stick deflection into a 2-0 lead at 1:10 of the second period. Jacob Truba's blast from the left point was knocked down by Kreider and redirected past Hill for his 19th of the season, second most on the team.
Gauthier tallied his team-leading 24th of the season on the power play for a 3-0 lead at 4:32 of the second period when he scored through traffic from the left penalty spot.
The Golden Knights pulled back a goal at 9:47 of the second period when Mark Stone's pass from behind the goal was deflected to Marner, who scored before Dostal could recover.
Vegas cut the deficit to 3-2 at 10:40 of the third period when Barbashev tipped in a shot past Dostal. Barbashev now has a goal in three consecutive games immediately following a 16-game run without a score.
Poehling scored into an empty net for Anaheim off an assist from Terry with 1:07 remaining, and Hertl added a goal for Vegas with 5.3 seconds left.