Knights finish off Ducks in 6 to make West finals

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mitch Marner scored a tremendous goal 62 seconds after the opening faceoff, Pavel Dorofeyev added two more in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights cruised into the Western Conference finals with a 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night.

Brett Howden scored his third short-handed goal of the playoffs, and Shea Theodore got a power-play goal during a 3-0 first period for the Golden Knights, who reached the third round of the NHL postseason for the first time since they won their lone Stanley Cup championship in 2023 — and for the fifth time in this charmed expansion franchise’s nine seasons of existence.

Marner played a role in all three of Vegas’ first-period goals while raising his NHL-leading playoff point total to 18, and Game 5 overtime goal-scorer Dorofeyev sealed the win with a huge third period. Carter Hart made 31 saves as the veteran-laden Golden Knights ended the upstart Ducks’ first playoff appearance since 2018.

Vegas will face an exponentially bigger challenge in the Colorado Avalanche, who won the Presidents’ Trophy and then improved to 8-1 in the postseason Wednesday by ousting Minnesota in five games.

Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, whose return from a seven-year playoff drought ended when their young roster couldn’t match the veteran Knights’ playoff poise in three losses over the past four games.

Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots for Anaheim, which couldn’t overcome another poor first period in Game 6, ending its encouraging first season under coach Joel Quenneville.

The Knights are 15-4-1 since John Tortorella replaced Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy on March 29, surging past the Ducks to claim the Pacific Division title before beating Utah and Anaheim in the first two playoff rounds.

Marner set the tone for Game 6 very early: The Anaheim crowd hadn’t calmed down from the pregame festivities before William Karlsson found Marner behind the defense at the blue line. Marner fought off Jackson LaCombe while driving toward the net and somehow got turned around, only to flip a shot between his legs and past Dostal for his seventh goal of the postseason and fifth of the series.

Eight minutes after Marner’s opening goal, he found an unmarked Howden for his eighth goal and the Knights’ NHL-best fourth short-handed goal of the postseason.

Theodore then got a long shot through Marner’s screen and over Dostal’s shoulder just five seconds into a power play, silencing Honda Center.

Troy Terry found Granlund for the Finn’s fifth goal of the playoffs, in the second period, but Dorofeyev got his eighth goal of the postseason early in the third after John Carlson‘s giveaway. Dorofeyev added another with 6:28 to play, fooling Dostal with a sneaky shot and giving him five goals in the past four games.

Vegas played without suspended defenseman Brayden McNabb, whose illegal hit on Ryan Poehling in Game 5 injured and sidelined the Ducks’ penalty-killing forward indefinitely.