Off To Conference Final To Play Colorado: Vegas 5 Anaheim 1 In Game 6, VGK Close Out Round 2 Series
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Mitch Marner did it all tonight and the Vegas Golden Knights are off to the Western Conference Finals thanks to Marner’s world-class skills and a 5-1 VGK win over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Marner took a stretch pass for a breakaway in the game’s first minute and made a puck-handling move that undressed Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal. He then made an elite slate-and-pass play to postseason goal-scoring machine Brett Howden, who gave Vegas a 2-0 lead.
Howden extended his road goal streak to five games and tied Jonathan Marchessault (5GP in 2023) for the longest run in franchise history, according to the NHL.
And in the first period’s waning minutes, he called for the puck on the power play while screening Dostal a moment before Vegas power play point man Shea Theodore fired a seeing-eye shot that found the back of the goal.
It was Vegas 3 Anaheim 0 after the first 20 minutes in the closeout game in Southern California.
The Ducks scored a goal in the middle stanza to cut the Vegas lead to 3-1 entering the final regulation period.
In the third, the Russian Connection of Ivan Barbashev to Pavel Dorofeyev ended with sharpshooter Dorofeyev striking twine and Vegas had its second three-goal lead of the game: VGK 4 Ducks 1. Dorofeyev notched another goal for the 5-1 final score.
Veteran Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville had a remarkable 21 wins in games where his team faced playoff elimination, but he could not add to that number tonight.
The Vegas-Anaheim series mirrored the Vegas-Utah first round series where the Knights split the first four games of each series before capturing Games 5 at home and 6 on the road to clinch the series.
By 9:34 PM, the handshake line had started. The Golden Knights are now off to play the powerful Colorado Avalanche, the team with the NHL’s best regular season record. Game 1 is Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver.
Thursday’s Vegas win also was another plus for Vegas coach John Tortorella, who was 7-0-1 in his eight Vegas regular season games and is now 8-4 in the playoffs.
PSA
