Knights need to find way to slow down high-flying Ducks

LAS VEGAS — For the Vegas Golden Knights, goaltending is not a problem as they try to navigate their way through the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

You know what is a problem? The overall speed of the Anaheim Ducks.

And if the Knights don’t figure a way to slow down the Ducks, this series won’t last very long.

The Ducks got right back in this series, winning 3-1 Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena and evening the best-of-seven series at a game apiece. And they did it with quickness exiting their own end and getting the puck moving to where the Vegas defense found itself out of position and leaving Carter Hart defenseless.

Game 3 will be Friday night at the Honda Center where Anaheim now enjoys the home-ice advantage. It’s up to John Tortorella to figure this out and come up with a solution.

“It’s a long series,” he said. “We’re always concerned as coaches no matter what. Win or lose. We still have some things to work on.”

Things like not letting Anaheim exit their end of the ice as easily as it has done the first two games of the series. Like getting the offense to forecheck harder and finish plays when they have possession.

And there’s staying out of the penalty box. There were the myriad penalties taken by the Golden Knights, including three in the offensive zone — a no-no under any circumstances but especially in the playoffs. And while the Ducks once again failed to cash in, including a 5-on-3 situation that was an extended power play while Jack Eichel served a double-minor for high sticking, penalties disrupt the normal flow of things when it comes to rolling out your lines.

“Outstanding,” Tortorella said of the job his penalty killers performed as the Ducks went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. “It screws us up when we wanted to get a good start and when you have guys in the box, it affects things as you try to start the first period. But the penalty kill was fantastic.”

Mark Stone, who scored the Knights’ goal with 5.6 seconds remaining on a late power play, said having a constant parade to the box is not good hockey.

“It doesn’t help when you kill the first eight to 10 minutes of the game,” he said. “You lose some guys in the first period. We got the kills when we needed them. We got it done but we couldn’t get back in the saddle. We couldn’t get the sustained pressure on them.”  

Hart was at his sharpest when his team needed him. He is in a rhythm right now which comes with having start eight straight playoff games. You figure things out and you find a groove.

But his defensemen were caught out of position more than once though the Ducks did cash in after Beckett Sennecke was left unattended in front while Kaedan Korczak and Ben Hutton were doing who-knows-what in their end of the ice and the talented young right wing gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead 11:23 into the second period.

And it was more of the same 6:36 into the third when Noah Hanifin was out of position and no one bothered to pick up Leo Carlsson, who was by his lonesome in front of Hart. A flick of the stick and it was 2-0 Anaheim.

And while we’ve grown accustomed to Vegas mounting third-period rallies all season, such was not going to be the case in Game 2. The Ducks were the faster, smarter, more aggressive team. An empty net goal from Jansen Harkins, a last-minute addition to the lineup made it 3-0 with 3:30 to play and sealed Game 2 for Anaheim.

The Ducks carried the play for a good portion of the night and perhaps Tortorella needs to rethink his decision to have Reilly Smith sit in favor of William Karlsson or Tomas Hertl or Keegan Kolesar, the latter two who have struggled mightily in the postseason.

“I felt better today,“ Karlsson said as he returns from the lower body injury that sidelined him from Nov. 8 until he was in the lineup Monday for the Knights’ Game 1 win. “So it’s a step forward. I’m not cramping, so it’s good.”

Tortorella did mix things up as his team trailed, moving Stone back up to the top line with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev while dropping Pavel Dorofeyev down to Hertl’s line, a move that didn’t quite pay off.

“I think we need to have the puck more in their end,” Tortorella said. “A lot of times we were one-and-done. We need to create more pressure there and it will slow down their attack.”

Karlsson said: “We probably need to pressure them more in their end. We have to forecheck more.”

In some ways, we’re seeing almost a carbon copy of the first round vs. Utah. The Mammoth showed up in Game 2, evened the series and were very much in it. Except Hart is sharper in round 2 and Lukas Dostal, Anaheim’s goalie, is better than Karel Vejmelka was for Utah.

But each series crafts its own identity. For Tortorella, Utah is in his rear-view mirror. His focus is where it needs to be: on Anaheim

“I need to look at the tape,” he said as he pondered what happened in Game 2 Wednesday. “I thought there were some really good minutes with the puck for us, some minutes where we’re just not there.

“But that’s why you play a series. I have full trust we’re going to find our way and play our best game. We’ll find our way and get there.”