John Gibson leaves with eye injury in Ducks’ loss to Golden Knights
LAS VEGAS — Tomas Hertl scored a go-ahead goal in the third period, Adin Hill made 31 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ducks 3-1 on Monday night.
After the Ducks tied the game on Mason McTavish’s goal early in the second period, Hertl broke the tie when he took a pass from Jack Eichel in front of Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal and maneuvered to his backhand.
Tanner Pearson scored a short-handed goal in the first period and Keegan Kolesar scored in the third period for Vegas.
Dostal made 19 saves in relief of Ducks starter John Gibson, who stopped all 11 shots he faced before leaving in the first period when Vegas’ Tanner Laczynski inadvertently poked the veteran netminder in the right eye with the blade of his stick.
Robby Fabbri scores twice in regulation and Mason McTavish scores in the shootout to lift the Ducks to a 5-4 comeback victory over Utah.
Takeaways
Ducks: Brock McGinn left with a lower-body injury after running into Hertl on the boards, leaving the Ducks to shuffle fourth-line wing Brett Leason.
Golden Knights: Coach Bruce Cassidy earned his 119th win, the most wins by a head coach in club history. The team was founded in 2016. The former Jack Adams winner is 119-59-20 in three seasons.
Key moment: With a chance to steal momentum in the second period, Ducks forward Alex Killorn dumped the puck in. Hill went behind the net to get the puck, which caromed off one of the linesman’s skates and went on goal. Hill dove awkwardly to make the save, and Leo Carlsson had a wide-open net but fired a backhand wide right.
Key stat: After playing 65 minutes in Sunday’s 5-4 overtime victory in Salt Lake City, Dostal added 39:37 in relief of Gibson, for a total of 104:37 in roughly 24 hours.
Up next: The Ducks host Philadelphia on Saturday. Vegas heads to San José for a Pacific Division clash on Friday night.
