Ducks power up, beat Golden Knights in Game 4 to even series

ANAHEIM — Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said he and his staff wondered all year long how their group would respond to the bright lights and adversity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

On Mother’s Day, they got their answer.

The Ducks shortened their best-of-seven series to a best-of-three, knotting their second-round matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights via a 4-3 triumph on Sunday evening at Honda Center.

In the process, they won the special-teams battle, 2-1, despite a night with one missed call after another against Vegas. They also out-shot and out-hit the Golden Knights in Game 4.

“It’s playoff hockey, and it was a man’s game,” Quenneville said.

Rookie Beckett Sennecke and veteran Alex Killorn each notched a goal and an assist. Cutter Gauthier set up their goals and another by Ian Moore. Mikael Granlund also scored. Lukáš Dostál recovered from getting the hook in Game 3 to make 18 saves in a Game 4 win.

Mitch Marner set up tallies from Pavel Dorofeyev, Brett Howden and Tomáš Hertl to place him back into the playoff scoring lead with 16 points. Jack Eichel contributed two assists. Carter Hart stopped 19 shots and captain Mark Stone (lower-body injury) missed the match.

In addition to their successful adjustments on the power play, the Ducks’ lineup tweaks paid dividends. Moore, who drew back in and played his natural position of defense in the injured Drew Helleson’s stead, scored. Olen Zellweger had an assist in his first action in over a month, swapping in for Tyson Hinds. Mason McTavish also returned, registering three shots and a +1 rating.

The Ducks padded their lead early in the closing stanza and that insurance came in handy when an unmarked Hertl scored 6-on-5 with 64 seconds remaining off a silky feed to the backpost by Marner. It was the former San Jose Sharks star’s first goal in 30 games.

That was academic in large measure because Gauthier, who led the Ducks with 41 goals this season but hadn’t recorded a point yet in the series, diversified his effort on Sunday.

He drew two penalties and had three assists, including two of the primary variety. His seam pass allowed Moore to fake a slap shot before adjusting his angle and ripping a snapper through traffic 3:43 into Period 3 for his first career playoff goal and point.

“In the first three games, I wasn’t getting enough shots,” Gauthier said. “Getting to the middle of the ice is always a big emphasis and trying to get in front of guys, get in front of the goalie and stir some things up. Fortunately, the guys were able to bury it when I made a couple of passes.”

Vegas and the Ducks played to a 1-1 stalemate in the second period, leaving the Ducks up 3-2 at the intermission.

“The biggest part of the game was — we needed to get out of the second period 2-2. That (goal) gave them some life,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said.

The go-ahead goal was the hosts’ second with one man up, and the engineer of their first, Killorn, became the finisher. Sennecke’s puck reversal initiated Killorn and Gauthier’s give-and-go play, with Killorn scoring despite his initial pass missing its mark and his shot banking off Hart. Killorn now has nine points in 10 playoff games after posting a modest 33 across 82 regular-season contests.

“If they’re going to try and take liberties on our top guys, we’re going to go out there and try to make them pay. It’s a huge thing that can be a momentum-turner in the playoffs,” Sennecke said.

William Karlsson, whom the Ducks drafted but deployed for just 18 games, set up the equalizer 4:04 into the middle frame. A lax backcheck from two of the Ducks’ better defensive players, Jackson LaCombe and Tim Washe, let Karlsson skate the puck down below the goal line and hit Howden in front for a redirection. Howden’s seven goals moved him into the three-way tie for the playoff lead after he compiled just a dozen all season.

The two sides exchanged man-advantage markers in the middle of the first period as the Ducks struck the nylon on the game’s first power play, 8:43 after puck drop, before Vegas reciprocated 1:39 later. The Ducks would establish a 2-1 edge with 4:35 to play and carry it into the dressing room.

Jeffrey Viel recovered the puck on the forecheck and found Granlund, who strode ahead and flicked a shot that was disrupted by Cole Smith. The puck bounced off the ice and over Hart’s pad for a tiebreaking goal, Granlund’s fourth of the playoffs.

Before that, there was a punch and a counterpunch on the power play.

The counter came from Vegas, leveling the tilt at one. Eichel ran the show from the left circle, where he’d eventually launch a one-timer off Dostál’s glove that Dorofeyev swept into the net.

Just prior, the Ducks’ conversion was their first of the series, after going 0-for-11 with the extra man. Vegas snapped an even longer streak on the PK, as they’d killed 21 straight penalties dating back to Round 1.

Killorn first served up a dangerous bid for Gauthier in the slot, the rebound from which returned to Killorn. He fed Sennecke above the right circle for a one-timer that became his third goal in three games and fourth of the postseason.

Sennecke, 20, was asked if the goal was the Mother’s Day gift for his mom, Canadian TV host Candice Olson.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask her if that’s enough,” he joked.

Game 5 will be in Vegas on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

The Ducks lost their Game 5 up 3-1 against the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1, while Vegas won its second of three consecutive decisions in its Game 5 to rally past the Utah Mammoth on May 1.