ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Ducks came home on Sunday needing a response and got a tense Game 4 against the Golden Knights at Honda Center, with puck drop set for 6:30 p.m. PT and the nationally televised matchup on. Anaheim entered the second-round game trailing the series 2-1, and the pressure was obvious after Friday’s 6-2 loss in Vegas.
The Ducks were adjusting on the fly. Lukas Dostal returned to the net, Mason McTavish came back into the lineup, and Drew Helleson remained out with an undisclosed injury while Radko Gudas was still a game-time decision because of a lower-body injury. Vegas also had a change of its own, with Mark Stone missing Game 4 after leaving Game 3 and Brandon Saad taking his place.
What made the assignment tougher was the opponent in front of them. Vegas came in having killed 21 consecutive power plays across six straight games, a run that started with Game 3 against Utah in the first round. Anaheim needed to find a way through that wall after struggling on Friday, when Alex Killorn said, “It wasn’t a great start,” and added that the Knights scored early, added a penalty-kill goal and then struck again on the power play with five seconds left. “It’s tough to win a game when you put yourself in spots like that,” he said.
For the Ducks, the series had already reached the point where every shift carried extra weight. Falling behind 2-1 meant Sunday was about more than just one game; it was about keeping the matchup alive long enough to force Vegas into a deeper fight. That task got harder against a team whose penalty kill had been shutting down everything in sight.
McTavish, back in the lineup, said he was “ready to go” and praised Dostal, saying, “He’s been so good all year.” He added, “Obviously, we know the kind of goalie he is. We have so much confidence in him. He’s bailed us out so many times and always comes back stronger so I’m excited to see his game today.” On the power play, McTavish said the Ducks needed to shoot more, especially from the top, create better screens and turn more of those chances into second looks. “I think the biggest thing is getting those second chances,” he said. “We’re doing a really good job of getting in there and getting set up and getting a shot, but just to stay in that pressure and tire Vegas out, that’s when power plays really open up and you can score more.”
Joel Quenneville said the loss on Friday carried a warning built into it. “There’s a lesson to take out of today’s game, and it’s only going to get harder every single game,” he said. “Let’s get ready to go to war.” That is where the Ducks stood at Game 4: back home, healthier in key spots, but staring at a series that had already started to tighten around them.
