Ducks' struggles against Golden Knights continue in 3-1 loss - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

Ducks’ struggles against the Golden Knights continue in 3-1 loss

Vegas forward Nolan Patrick reaches for the puck in front of Ducks forward Vinni Lettieri and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.
Vegas Golden Knights forward Nolan Patrick, right, reaches for the puck in front of Ducks forward Vinni Lettieri (28) and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk during the Ducks’ 3-1 loss Friday.
(David Becker / Associated Press)
Share via

Laurent Brossoit stopped 15 shots and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ducks 3-1 on Friday to increase their Pacific Division lead.

Mattias Janmark, Adam Brooks and Nic Roy scored for the Golden Knights. They improved to 4-0 at home on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day since entering the league in 2017.

Ryan Getzlaf scored for the Ducks, with 12 seconds left in the game to spoil Brossoit’s attempt at his third career shutout. John Gibson made 42 saves for the Ducks.

Advertisement

“I’m not too worried about [a shutout], the main goal is the win, and so that feels good,” said Brossoit, who is 1-0 with a career .950 save percentage and 1.04 GAA in three appearances against Anaheim. “Of course, a shutout would have been nice, a little bit of a bonus but it’s not going to worry my night.”

It has been nearly 10 years since Jack Jablonski was paralyzed during a high school hockey game, but his spirit for life remains unbroken.

Dec. 30, 2021

Vegas won for the 10th time in 12 games and to move three points in front of Anaheim, sitting in first place in the Pacific Division with 44 points.

“I think the team’s been feeling really good in the last month or so, and to cap off the month and the year in the fashion like that, it couldn’t feel any better,” Brossoit said.

Advertisement

Since opening the season 10-4-3, the Ducks are 7-6-4. Anaheim’s 16 shots were a season low.

“I don’t think we played with any energy or passion to start the game,” Getzlaf said. “We came into a building that’s pretty electric and their team likes to play here. We didn’t accomplish a lot in that first period and throughout most of the game.”

Vegas jumped out early with a 2-0 first-period lead after Roy opened the scoring with his career-high seventh goal by deflecting home Ben Hutton’s shot past Gibson midway through the first period.

Advertisement

Brooks made it 2-0 late in the first with a bit of a mystery goal, as his one-timer by Gibson was lodged into the back of the net and goal frame, and hadn’t been discovered for several moments.

Janmark, who also had a missed penalty shot opportunity, put Vegas ahead 3-0 after he fed Keegan Kolesar for a beautiful doorstep one-timer that failed. The puck trickled back to the top of the left circle, where Janmark fired through traffic for his fourth goal of the season.

“The trend we’ve had lately is good and now we just got to keep building off it,” Janmark said. “We’ve got a couple of home games here so we can really gain ground here.”

Outweighing what’s become an annual New Year’s party inside T-Mobile with the Golden Knights, was overflowing tension between the division rivals, as the two brawls broke out.

Getzlaf took exception to an earlier sequence and came out of the penalty box looking to drop the gloves and found Vegas enforcer Keegan Kolesar. Both were sent to the box for fighting.

Here are the top 10 Staples Center moments for the Lakers, Clippers, Sparks and Kings ahead of the Crypto.com Arena name change.

Dec. 25, 2021

Moments later Ducks wing Nicolas Deslauriers was whacking at Vegas’ young forward Michael Amadio’s stick at the faceoff circle and referee Trevor Hanson sent him off the ice for the rest of the period.

Advertisement

With the Ducks clearly frustrated, Anaheim’s Derek Grant cross-checked Vegas defenseman Dylan Coghlan, triggering two more fights and seven penalties to four players.

A second free-for-all broke out near the end of the game after Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb laid one of his patented hits into Anaheim’s Sam Carrick. Both Carrick and Buddy Robinson jumped on McNabb, igniting another fracas.

Vegas and Anaheim finished the game with 62 penalty minutes.

Advertisement