Special teams nearly complete comeback as Golden Knights fall to Ducks

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 | 10:45 p.m.

Facing a three-goal deficit, the Golden Knights took a couple of penalties that renewed their comeback hopes. Unfortunately for them, it wasn't enough.

Down 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, Vegas scored a pair of shorthanded goals to trim the deficit to one, but never found the game-tying goal. Even as the Ducks extended their lead, the Golden Knights netted two on the power play, but four goals allowed in the second period was too big of a hole to escape, and they fell to Anaheim 6-5 at Honda Center.

“We’ve been putting ourselves in a hole in a lot of games lately and we found a way to make it a game right until the end, so if you want to look at the positive side you can do that,” forward Mattias Janmark said. “With shorthanded goals and power-play goals and (6-on-4) goals and five goals, we almost have to come out with a point at least but we didn’t.

“We pretty much gave this one away.”

After a scoreless first period, the dam burst in the second. The Ducks scored four times and the Golden Knights tallied two, including Zach Whitecloud’s shorthanded tally with 12 seconds left in the frame to make it 4-2. Janmark scored a shorthanded goal of his own 1:58 into the third, bringing Vegas within one.

Even a Jamie Drysdale goal at 6:55 of the third to put the Ducks up 5-3 didn’t put Vegas to bed. Max Pacioretty scored his first since opening night on the power play, and the Golden Knights answered Isac Lundestrom’s empty-net goal with a Reilly Smith power-play deflection with 28 seconds to go before time ran out.

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Lehner’s rough go

Robin Lehner needed to be a superhero early in the season with all the scoring chances the Golden Knights were conceding, and only his play in net kept Vegas from spiraling downward in the standings. He was near the league leaders in goals saved above expected and single-handedly stole a couple of games for the Golden Knights.

Over the past few weeks, he hasn’t been able to overcome what remains a poor defense in front of him. He’s allowed 25 goals in his last seven outings with an .894 save percentage. Wednesday was the second time this season and the second time in four outings he allowed five goals (Anaheim’s sixth goal was an empty-netter).

“I’ve got to be better,” Lehner said. “I’ve got to figure out a lot of odd-man rushes, stuff like that, breakaways, we’ve just got to figure it out. We got a couple of unlucky bounces too, but it’s enough, I can’t say that anymore. I’ve just got to stop the puck.”

Not the old Ducks

There’s no team in the league the Golden Knights have beaten more than the Ducks. Entering the season with a 17-3 all-time record, allowing a paltry 1.85 goals per game in those 20 contests against Anaheim. The Golden Knights had no trouble beating up on a team that had a record of 81-100-28 over the past three years.

This, though, is a new Ducks team. Anaheim’s victory extended its lead over Vegas to five points in the Pacific Division, although Vegas has a game in hand. The Ducks, led by an emerging young core and resurgent goaltending, are playing like a legitimate playoff contender.

They have even started scoring. They were last in the league in scoring last season and are ninth this season with 3.22 goals per game, with nine goals in the two meetings against the Golden Knights this year.

“We’ve got a formula here that works for us, but it doesn’t involve giving up five or six goals,” coach Pete DeBoer said.

Shorthanded prowess

As long as a team doesn’t allow a power-play goal, the defense did its job. But if it can chip in a goal at the other end, that’s just a bonus.

As the second period came to a close, Whitecloud netted a shorthanded goal, which is notable for a few reasons. It made him the fifth Vegas defenseman to score shorthanded, joining Colin Miller (in the playoffs), Brayden McNabb, Jon Merrill and Alex Pietrangelo.

It was also the Golden Knights’ fourth shorthanded goal of the year, then Janmark’s tally made it five, briefly equaling the team’s total of power-play goals before Pacioretty and Smith scored with the man advantage.

The Golden Knights' five shorthanded goals lead the NHL this season, and their 37 since joining the league in 2017-18 also lead the NHL in that span.