Ducks pushed to brink of elimination with OT loss in Game 5

LAS VEGAS — Frustration or motivation? Anger or excitement? Pressure or no pressure?

The Ducks’ emotions seemed to run the gamut after the Vegas Golden Knights pushed them to the brink of elimination in Game 5 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena. Who could blame them? Who would have predicted they’d even be here?

Pavel Dorofeyev’s second goal of the game, 4:10 into sudden-death overtime, sent Vegas to a 3-2 victory and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is set for Thursday night at Honda Center. Game 7, if necessary, will be played Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.

“We’ve come back a lot all year,” Ducks forward Mason McTavish said. “Obviously, it’s different from a series perspective, but I think a lot of guys are excited to play already. We want to get back out there already. I’m kind of excited to see what everybody’s going to bring. We’ve got a lot of confidence.”

Clearly, the Ducks aren’t one of those just-happy-to-be-here teams. They weren’t content simply to have advanced to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season. They weren’t satisfied with a first-round victory over the Edmonton Oilers, their first series win since 2016-17.

What’s more, the Ducks aren’t satisfied to be playing the role of gutty underdog in this season, either. In many ways they have been the superior team through five games of the series, younger to be sure and absolutely far less experienced in playoff games such as Game 5.

So, maybe that’s why Tuesday’s loss stung so much and yet had the Ducks primed for another run at the older and more experienced Golden Knights. The Ducks conceded nothing through three periods of regulation play before the Golden Knights took control in OT.

Jack Eichel set up Dorofevey’s goal, a quick shot that beat Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal. The Ducks had a couple of chances to clear their own zone, but they could not get it done. The puck ended up on Eichel’s stick, then Dorofevey’s and then in the back of the Ducks’ net on Vegas’ fifth shot in OT.

The Ducks did not have a shot on goal in overtime.

Tomas Hertl’s tiebreaking goal put Vegas ahead 4:48 into the third period, and it left the Ducks scrambling down the stretch to produce an equalizer. They got it on defenseman Olen Zellweger’s goal at 16:55 of the third, tying it 2-2 and capping a furious push that sent the game to OT.

The Ducks outshot the Golden Knights 35-27 in regulation.

Now, they’ll go where they haven’t gone so far in the playoffs.

“We’re excited,” Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier said of facing elimination. “You know, it might be the first time for a lot of us, but we’re not going to take it for granted and we’re not going to be happy that we’re here. We want to win games and want to go as far as we possibly can. I’m happy how this group has handled themselves up to this date, but we have a big game coming up in a couple of days.”

The Ducks will likely have to play Game 6 without forward Ryan Poehling.

Vegas might be without defenseman Brayden McNabb.

The Ducks paid a steep price for taking a 1-0 lead in the first period, and so did the Golden Knights. Poehling was knocked into the boards and onto the ice by a hard-charging McNabb and needed assistance to reach the dressing room nine minutes into the game, clearly in distress after absorbing an illegal check.

After a lengthy review, McNabb was given a 5-minute interference major and a game misconduct. McNabb could be suspended by the NHL for Game 6. The Ducks later ruled out Poehling for the rest of the game because of an upper-body injury, and Coach Joel Quenneville didn’t have a postgame update.

“I think they saw the hit, the right call was made, that’s how I saw it,” Quenneville said of his opinion of McNabb’s hit.

The Ducks scored once during the ensuing 5-minute power play, with rookie Beckett Sennecke smacking home a rebound of Gauthier’s shot from the wing. Sennecke scored for the fourth consecutive game, one of only four NHL rookies in the last 25 years with such a playoff streak.

They were 0 for 11 on the power play to start the series.

Vegas countered with Dorofeyev’s power-play goal roughly four minutes later. Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal denied the Golden Knights’ Mitch Marner on a breakaway attempt with a deft poke-check at the moment of truth. Defenseman Pavel Mintyukov was penalized for slashing Marner.

In the end, the ending overshadowed another game in which the Ducks drove the play at times, put the Golden Knights on their heels and made the unlikely seem likely. Zellweger’s first playoff goal in only the second playoff game of his career pushed Vegas into an uncomfortable position.

So, what happens next? How do the Ducks respond in Game 6?

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Gauthier said of Tuesday’s overtime loss. “It’s the game of hockey. I thought we played a great game tonight. You know, we have a couple of things to clean up. We’ll watch the video and get better, but I was happy with how we played tonight.”