Golden Knights cruise past Ducks in Game 6, advance to Western Conference Final

ANAHEIM -- The Vegas Golden Knights scored three goals in the first period en route to eliminating the Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference Second Round at Honda Center on Thursday.

Vegas will face the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. The Golden Knights advanced to the third round for the fourth time in the past seven seasons.

Game 1 of the best-of-7 series will be at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"We worked extremely hard for all these little goals we set throughout the year," Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner said. "We've got to take these couple days, whatever we have, try to refuel and refresh and be ready to go."

Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice in the third period, and Marner and Shea Theodore each had a goal and an assist for Vegas, the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Carter Hart made 31 saves.

Mikael Granlund scored, and Lukas Dostal made 16 saves for the Ducks, the No. 3 seed from the Pacific.

“I kind of feel like tonight was the story of the season," Granlund said. "In the regular season, we were able to come back, but in the playoffs, it's not easy.”

The Golden Knights scored on the first shot of the game for the second time in the series.

Marner gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 1:02 of the first period. William Karlsson made a stretch pass to Marner, who was a step ahead of Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe. Marner slowed up as he neared the crease, causing LaCombe to skate past him, then turned his back to the net before pulling the puck through his legs and pushing it across the goal line.

"I just tried to find open ice cutting through the middle," Marner said. "‘Karl’ made a great pass to me and I just tried to make a move."

Marner leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists).

"Just made a mistake early, and didn't put ourselves in a good spot," LaCombe said.

Brett Howden’s short-handed goal then extended it to 2-0 at 8:30 on the game’s first power play. Marner took the puck off the wall after the Ducks rimmed it around in the Vegas end and carried it into the Anaheim zone. Marner saw Howden slip behind LaCombe and Alex Killorn and fed him for a one-timer from the right hash marks.

"Tonight was kind of what happened too many times this year where we give up a couple quick ones early," Quenneville said. "It's a tough comeback against a team that knows how to play hockey."

It was the third short-handed goal in these playoffs for Howden, which ties an NHL record for the most in a single postseason. Marner also had recorded his fourth short-handed assist of the playoffs.

"He's made some unbelievable plays to me, set me up for some of those," Howden said of Marner. "I feel like me and 'Mitcher' are building a little something here. I'm learning to read off him and his instincts."

Theodore scored on Vegas’ first power play to push it to 3-0 at 17:19, converting five seconds into the man-advantage with a snap shot from above the hash marks.

"They were harder on pucks," Ducks forward Troy Terry said. "It felt like we were just waiting for something to happen.”

Granlund’s power-play goal cut it to 3-1 at 12:46 of the second period with a snap shot from the left face-off circle.

"We knew we were going to come with a push in the second," Anaheim forward Beckett Sennecke said. "We were down three goals, so we just tried to move our feet, shoot the puck and, credit to their goalie, he made nice saves."

Dorofeyev made it 4-1 at 2:52 of the third period, scoring from the right circle off a feed from Ivan Barbashev after he stole a clearing attempt by John Carlson in the Anaheim zone.

"We had 3-1, we were coming, and then the fourth one, that was tough," Quenneville said.

Dorofeyev extended it to 5-1 at 13:32 after scoring short side from just above the goal line.

Dorofeyev, who scored five goals during a three-game streak to end the series, has an NHL-leading nine this postseason.

"It's a great learning curve in going forward," Quenneville said. "I think the one thing we're going to find out in this league is everybody has a shot to make the playoffs at the start of the season, everybody is competitive as heck. The regular season is extremely meaningful."

NOTES: The Golden Knights won their eighth series-clinching game as the road team since joining the NHL in the 2017-18 season, which is tied with the Avalanche for the most among all NHL teams during that span. ... Howden has a five-game road goal streak (six goals). ... Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb served a one-game suspension for his interference penalty against Ryan Poehling in Game 5 on Tuesday. Poehling sustained an upper-body injury and did not play in Game 6. Dylan Coghlan took McNabb's spot with Theodore on the top pairing and was a plus-3 with four hits.