The Vegas Golden Knights’ perfect penalty kill streak came to an end at the worst possible time. After killing 26 of 27 shorthanded situations entering Game 4, the Knights allowed two power-play goals for the first time this postseason in a 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday at Honda Center, evening the series at 2-2.
Anaheim’s rookie forward Beckett Sennecke opened the scoring on the power play at 7:31 of the first period, beating goaltender Carter Hart for his third goal in as many games. Vegas answered less than three minutes later when Pavel Dorofeyev tied it on a power-play goal of his own at 10:22.
The Ducks regained the lead late in the first period when Mikael Granlund scored on a rebound at 15:22. Brett Howden tied the game again early in the second period at 4:04, converting a backhand feed from William Karlsson behind the net.
But with 2:02 left in the second period, Alex Killorn scored on another Ducks power play to make it 3-2, a goal that coach John Tortorella said swung the game. “I think the biggest part of the game was I think we need to get out of the second period 2-2,” Tortorella said. “That gave them some life.”
Anaheim defenseman Ian Moore extended the lead to 4-2 at 3:43 of the third period with a point shot that cleanly beat Hart. Hart finished with 19 saves on 23 shots after allowing just five goals total in his previous three starts.
Tomas Hertl scored his first goal since March 4 with Hart pulled for an extra attacker with 1:04 remaining, but the Knights could not find the equalizer. “I think there’s some ebbs and flows,” winger Colton Sissons said. “I think down the stretch, we wanted to probably win a couple more battles and execute a little bit more to create some offense.”
The series now shifts back to T-Mobile Arena for Game 5 on Tuesday, with the Knights facing a familiar situation — a tied series heading home, just as they did in the first round against Utah. “I have zero worry about this team about how we’re going to go about the next few games here,” Tortorella said. “I have total trust (in them).”
