Anaheim Loses 4-1 To Vegas; Zegras Injured

Screenshot via Sportsnet

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks continued their home stand against the Vegas Golden Knights. Cam Fowler was activated off the IR and returned to the lineup. Urho Vaakanainen was placed on the IR. John Gibson got the started in net against Ilya Samsonov.

Recap

Vegas scored the first goal of the contest in the final minutes of the opening period. Nicolas Hague took the initial shot, which was blocked and William Karlsson was able to get to the rebound to score. The Golden Knights led 1-0 after the opening period.

In the opening moments of the second period, Trevor Zegras went down next to the Anaheim net. He took a face-off against Karlsson and when he pushed off with his left skate, his right leg then buckled under him. Zegras couldn’t get up and had to be helped off the ice directly to the locker room. He would not return.

Vegas then made it 2-0 just over six minutes into the second period. Gibson stopped the first stop on a 2-on-1, but Shea Theodore got to the rebound for the score.

Anaheim got on the board in the final two minutes of the middle frame. Jackson LaCombe scored on a wrist shot from the point that beat Samsonov low. The goal came just after the time on the power play expired. Vegas led 2-1 after two periods.

Vegas went back up by two early in the third period on an odd man rush. Alexander Holtz scored in close at the side of the net.

Anaheim pulled Gibson in the final minutes, but Theodore scored in the empty net. Ducks dropped this one by a 4-1 final.

Analysis

It was a difficult night for the Anaheim Ducks on many levels. The opening 10 minutes of the game was very quiet with not a lot of flow to the contest by either team. Vegas gained momentum with a goal late in the period and then carried into the second by making it a 2-0 game. The Ducks got some life back at the end of the second with a goal by LaCombe, but the Golden Knights reestablished the two goal lead early in the third and that’s they needed to win.

The Ducks were able to play a decent game at even strength against the Golden Knights despite being down a forward for two periods. They had 51 shot attempts to 52 for Vegas. Anaheim posted a CF of 49.51% and FF of 49.28%. The issue for Anaheim was giving up too many odd man rushes and two of those resulted directly in goals for Vegas. Neither team scored with the power play, though the Ducks scored right after their one man advantage ended.

The bigger loss on the night was the injury to Zegras. He pushed off on his left skate, which looked to hit Karlsson’s right skate just after a face-off and then he went down right away. Zegras looked to be in serious discomfort as he couldn’t get back up on the ice without assistance. He didn’t return to the game and there was no update. Zegras had seven points (3 G + 4 A) in his previous eight contests.

With the amount of injuries the Ducks players have sustained in the recent past seasons, maybe it’s time to get a priest to sprinkle some holy water on the Honda Center ice.

Team Notes/Stats:

The loss was the first time since November 8th against Minnesota that Anaheim had lost by more than one more goal. Since that contest the Ducks had gone 6-3-1 with all their losses coming by a one goal margin.

What’s Next?

The Ducks host the Minnesota Wild on Friday at 7PM.

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December 5th, 2024