Hill, Golden Knights rebound to edge Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Adin Hill made 22 saves for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Wednesday.

Hill was pulled in the second period of his previous start after allowing four goals on 21 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.

"Felt good tonight, felt sharp," Hill said. "They threw a lot of pucks at the net and kind of a lot of weird bounces."

Nicolas Roy, Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev scored, and Shea Theodore had two assists for the Golden Knights (10-4-2), who had lost two in a row.

"We just didn't like our effort last game," Theodore said. "Sometimes, getting on the road, getting a good mentality like that is good. Getting the guys together. We have a lot of road games coming up this month, so we wanted to start with tonight and get off on the right foot."

Brock McGinn and Frank Vatrano scored, and Lukas Dostal made 36 saves for the Ducks (5-8-2), who were looking to win two in a row for the first time this season.

"I think there's a lot to build off of tonight," Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. "There's a lot of things we're doing well in our D-zone that were a little shaky before."

McGinn gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 17:39 of the first period. Brett Leason took possession behind the Vegas net and passed to Pavel Mintyukov, whose one-timer from the left circle was stopped, but McGinn collected the rebound and shoveled it past Hill.

"[Leason] made a good play around the net there and [Mintyukov had] a good shot and I was able to bang it in," McGinn said.

Leason had two assists and has three points (one goal, two assists) in the past two games after being a healthy scratch for the previous three.

"First guy on the ice at the optional skates. He's the first guy on the ice when there's extra skating. Positive attitude," Cronin said of Leason. "He's a quiet kid, he's a very unassuming kid, but he's competitive, he cares."

The Golden Knights tied it 1-1 with 49 seconds left in the first on Roy's one-timer from the top of the crease off a feed from below the goal line by Theodore.

"It was nice to find [Roy] going to the net," Theodore said. "Some good plays to take from tonight."

Vegas was on its second power play of the game when Hertl converted a rebound in the slot for a 2-1 lead at 6:43 of the second period.

Dorofeyev converted his own rebound to stretch the lead to 3-1 at 4:29 of the third with his team-leading ninth goal of the season.

Vatrano scored on the rush with 13 seconds left for the 3-2 final.

"As a staff, we try to break it down into how [the opponent is] generating chances and I think tonight a lot of them came off our sticks," Cronin said. "Just faulty passes and maybe some poor decisions, but they worked hard. I can't fault that. They worked hard and put ourselves in position to tie the game."

This was the first stop of a two-game trip for the Golden Knights, whose fathers have joined them on the road. Vegas improved to 10-0-1 (plus-28 goal differential) in games with the players’ fathers in attendance.

"It always gets the juices flowing," Theodore said.

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy credited the dads with sparking the Golden Knights two seasons ago.

The Golden Knights were on a four-game losing streak when the fathers joined the team for the final two games of the road trip in early February. Vegas won both, against the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild, by the score of 5-1.

"It sort of kickstarted us to the road to winning the Cup, to be honest," Cassidy said. "We finished strong the second half, started believing in each other again and the dads had a lot to do with that. ... Our guys obviously like playing in front of their dads."

NOTES: Vegas forward Grigori Denisenko had a team-high five hits while playing 8:27 in his season debut after being recalled from Henderson of the American Hockey League on Wednesday ... The Golden Knights have scored a power-play goal in 12 of 16 games this season. ... Dostal leads the NHL with 392 saves. ... Anaheim had won its previous three games against Vegas at Honda Center.