The garbage-time power-play goal didn’t keep the Anaheim Ducks from claiming a series-tying victory on the road, their 3-1 win evening the second-round bout 1-1, but it did keep the club from breaking a streak that dates back to Day 1 of the 2024-25 campaign:

But wins are what matter, and Dostal certainly earned this one. A goalie battle from the start, he and Vegas netminder Carter Hart took turns stumping opposing forwards in what was a strong showing from both sides. Hart shone early, stopping all 13 of Anaheim’s first-period shots, and was the busier goalie Wednesday night — he faced 27 shots, and stopped 25. The Golden Knights’ offence was slow to warm up, which meant Dostal was, too — he faced just three shots in the first frame. His night got busier as the game went on, stopping all 11 pucks fired his way in the second and seven of eight in the third. He was perfect at even-strength. 

Dostal’s Game 2 performance feels like a win within the win for Anaheim. The 25-year-old had a shaky start to his first career post-season stint — he allowed four goals in each of his first three games of Round 1 against Edmonton, his series save percentage coming in at .874. He bounced back from a dismal Game 5 showing to put away the Oilers with a 25-save performance in Game 6, and has been excellent since. He registered a .905 save percentage on 21 shots in Game 1 against Vegas, and on Wednesday night raised the bar to .955 to win the showdown against Hart. He’s allowed just three goals through two games, and while he didn’t quite achieve perfection, Wednesday’s showing seems like a sign of more great showdowns to come. 

Ducks’ power play falls short again versus Vegas’s stifling PK

Through two games of this second-round series so far, Vegas has made Anaheim’s elite power play look lifeless. That’s a huge storyline early in this series, considering just how heavily the Ducks relied on their PP production against Edmonton — and just how steep a drop the unit has experienced since. 

After going zero-for-four in Game 1 Monday night, Anaheim had ample opportunity to turn things around in the first period of Wednesday’s contest, which saw Vegas collect eight penalty minutes (including a four-minute, high-sticking double-minor charged to Eichel) in the first five minutes of the opening frame. 

Even with more than 90 seconds of five-on-three play, the Ducks couldn’t capitalize. Much like we saw from Utah in Round 1, the Ducks spent nearly every second with the man advantage patrolling the perimeter in search of the perfect shot. They couldn’t find it. 

Anaheim closed out Wednesday’s win without a PP goal, going zero-for-five on the night to bring their total to none-for-nine on the series so far. But their fifth opportunity did show some signs of life — Anaheim clearly got the memo to get pucks on net, and looked a lot more like the squad we saw last series. Something to build on, perhaps. 

Youth and depth step up for Ducks

Two nights after falling to Vegas in Game 1, the Ducks got off to a blazing start in Game 2, with Troy Terry launching the club into a scoring chance just six seconds into the matchup in an attempt to catch Hart on his heels. Hart’s early heroics kept Vegas in the game despite the Ducks’ barrage of shots, but Anaheim was clearly intent on setting the tone in this one. 

It worked. Anaheim managed to harness its own speed-forward game while also matching Vegas’s hard-hitting, physical approach. Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville rolled out his big lines early and often, resulting in a pretty sizeable gap between his most- and least-used forwards, but that didn’t stop Beckett Sennecke (11:03 minutes of ice time) and Jansen Harkins (9:44) from making big impacts. Sennecke was the first to light the lamp Wednesday night, when he took advantage of Vegas’s defensive misplay that saw him in all alone after Jeffrey Viel served him up the puck from behind the net. Harkins scored an empty-net insurance goal late in the third in his 2026 playoff debut.

Those goals sandwiched Leo Carlsson’s third-period marker that gave Anaheim some breathing room early in the third.

Are Vegas’s stars going quiet again?

It was a storyline in Round 1 against Utah, and while this second-round series is still very young, it’s hard not to wonder if it’s happening again… Because through two games, we have yet to see much of an offensive impact from some of Vegas’s biggest names. Pavel Dorofeyev has just two shots to his name through two games so far. He and Eichel have two assists between them. Mitch Marner sealed Monday’s series-opening win with an empty-netter, but was held without a point Wednesday on just two shots. If not for Eichel and Stone collaborating on Vegas’ power-play marker at the end of regulation, the Golden Knights would’ve been shut out entirely in this one. 

Depth has been a major asset for the experienced club, but they need their stars to step up if they’re to match the firepower of Anaheim. Might that garbage-time goal have woken them up?