The Ducks look to get back to their winning ways in Game 2 against the Golden Knights before the series returns to Anaheim.
Puck drop is set for 6:30 p.m. PT and will air nationally on TNT.
Anaheim fell to Vegas, 3-1, on Monday in the first game of this series. Mikael Granlund evened the score 1-1 in the third period, but just over a minute and change later, Vegas took a 2-1 lead and eventually tacked on an empty netter for the two-score win.
“I don’t mind the way we played,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had a lot of pace. Both teams worked hard. It’s a heck of a hockey game. … I don’t think we had the quantity or the quality we had in the last series, but we did have enough to score more than one.”
Despite the loss, this isn’t unfamiliar territory for the Ducks after the Oilers beat them in Game 1 of the First Round. Anaheim rebounded with three-straight wins and an eventual series-clinching victory in Game 6.
“Even throughout the year how our games have gone, you’re down a couple of goals and you can’t get frustrated,” Ryan Poehling said of the team’s mindset. “I think you can do the same with a series. You’re down 1-0 but you gotta get to four. So for us to just kind of play from behind in a sense [in a series,] I think it’s kind of the same as a game.”
“We gotta get more pucks to the net,” Quenneville said when asked about strategy for tonight’s game. “We gotta definitely have more bodies at the net. I know we say that all the time, but we did get some shots at the net, but I think (Carter Hart) saw a lot of them. I think we got to make them do some different things, but he had a good game and we’ve got to make sure it’s not as easy for him to find the puck.”
While Radko Gudas (lower-body) is making progress, he remains out for tonight’s matchup.
It was announced on Tuesday that Beckett Sennecke is a finalist for the Calder Trophy joining New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer and right winger Ivan Demidov of the Montreal Canadiens.
The 2025 first round selection of the Ducks finished with 60 points (23 goals, 37 assists) in the regular season and becomes the fourth player in franchise history to be named a Calder finalist. When asked about his first season, Sennecke said it’s been quite the year as he made the jump to the pro level and into the playoffs.
“I learned a ton this year both on and off the ice and I’m super fortunate that they gave me the opportunity,” Sennecke said.
“He had a tremendous year,” Quenneville said of the rookie. “He makes a lot of plays that you don’t see very often … I just think that his upside of the talent that he has is tremendous. The unpredictability in his game gives some defense and opponents something to think about.”
