By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mitch Marner scored a tremendous goal 62 seconds after the opening faceoff, Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights cruised into the Western Conference finals with a 5-1 victory over Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night.
Brett Howden scored his third short-handed goal of the playoffs and Shea Theodore got a power-play goal during a 3-0 first period for the Golden Knights, who reached the third round of the NHL postseason for the first time since they won their lone Stanley Cup championship in 2023 — and for the fifth time in this charmed expansion franchise’s nine seasons of existence.
“You go into it and you want to score first, especially being on the road,” said Theodore, an original member of the Knights after Anaheim traded him to Vegas in 2017. “I thought we responded well. We played great the first 15 minutes, and that’s what we had to do. … Just a veteran group. We had the right mindset coming in, and it was good to see the results.”
Marner played a role in all three of Vegas’ first-period goals while raising his NHL-leading playoff point total to 18, and Game 5 overtime goal-scorer Dorofeyev put the game away with a huge third period. Carter Hart made 31 saves as the veteran-laden Golden Knights ended the upstart Ducks’ first playoff appearance since 2018.
“It obviously feels great,” said Marner, who got labeled a playoff underachiever while his Toronto Maple Leafs never reached a conference final. “We worked extremely hard for all these little goals that we set throughout the year, and another one (is) achieved. But obviously the work just keeps getting harder and harder.”
Vegas will face an exponentially bigger challenge in the Colorado Avalanche, who won the Presidents’ Trophy and then improved to 8-1 in the postseason on Wednesday by ousting Minnesota in five games.
Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, whose return from a seven-year playoff drought ended when their young roster was unable to match the veteran Knights’ playoff poise in three losses over the final four games.
Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots for Anaheim, which couldn’t overcome another poor first period in Game 6, ending their encouraging first season under coach Joel Quenneville.
“Vegas got better every single game,” Quenneville said. “They played well. They checked well. They deserved to win. Tonight was kind of what happened too many times this year, where we give up a couple of quick ones early, and it’s a tough comeback against a team that knows how to play hockey.”
The Knights are 15-4-1 since John Tortorella replaced Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy on March 29, surging past the Ducks to claim the Pacific Division title before beating Utah and Anaheim in the first two playoff rounds.
The 67-year-old Tortorella refused to speak to the media after the game.
Marner set the tone for Game 6 very early: The Anaheim crowd hadn’t calmed down from the pregame festivities before William Karlsson found Marner behind the defense at the blue line. Marner fought off Jackson LaCombe while driving the net and somehow got turned around, only to flip a shot between his legs and past Dostal for his seventh goal of the postseason and fifth of the series.
“I just tried to make a move,” Marner said. “Dostal had me covered, I thought, on the backhand, so I tried to do that move, and luckily it worked out.”
Eight minutes after Marner’s opening goal, he found an unmarked Howden for his eighth goal and the Knights’ NHL-best fourth short-handed goal of the postseason.
Theodore then got a long shot through Marner’s screen and over Dostal’s shoulder just 5 seconds into a power play, silencing Honda Center.
Troy Terry found Granlund for the Finn’s fifth goal of the playoffs, in the second period, but Dorofeyev got his eighth goal of the postseason early in the third after John Carlson’s giveaway. Dorofeyev added another with 6:28 to play, fooling Dostal with a sneaky shot and giving him five goals in the past four games.
Vegas played without suspended defenseman Brayden McNabb, whose illegal hit on Ryan Poehling in Game 5 injured and sidelined the Ducks’ penalty-killing forward indefinitely.
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