Ducks find their power-play scoring touch and defeat Vegas to even playoff series

Temperatures are forecast to top 100 degrees Tuesday in Las Vegas, where the Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights will meet in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.

That's not exactly hockey weather, though it's increasingly becoming the norm for the playoffs as the postseason stretches toward summer and Sun Belt teams like Vegas make longer and longer postseason runs.

And speaking of norms for the postseason, that's how the Ducks are describing their chippy best-of-seven series with Vegas, which is now tied at two games apiece after Anaheim's convincing 4-3 win Sunday. The series has grown increasingly physical with each passing game and the young Ducklings haven't shied away from mixing it up with the more experienced Golden Knights, outskating and outhitting them to even the series.

"Probably just playoff hockey. But we look forward to that. There's been definitely a lot of little cross checks and stuff after the whistle," said winger Alex Killorn, the Ducks player with the most postseason experience, a fact that has made him something of a playoff oracle to his young but inexperienced teammates.

"I personally got popped a couple of times. So yeah, they're hitting hard," said forward Beckett Sennecke who, like Killorn, had a power-play goal for the Ducks. "But we're doing it back to them, too."

More important, however, the Ducks finally found a way to make Vegas pay for that aggression. Through the first three games of the series, the Golden Knights smothered Anaheim's power play, killing all 11 penalties Vegas took in the series.

But now the Ducks' power play is as hot as the weather after scoring on two of four chances in Game 4.

"Once you score one, it kind of changes the confidence of a power play," said Killorn, who said the Ducks are also playing with more urgency. "You're getting good opportunities, you're getting good chances [but] it's not going your way. To see one go in, for us it was kind of a momentum-builder, and it gives you confidence."

Early in the series Anaheim was trying to be too fine, Killorn said. On Sunday they just let the puck fly, much as they did in their first-round series with Edmonton when they scored on eight of 16 power-play tries.

"A lot of times you could move the puck around too much, and you kind of look for the perfect opportunity on the power play. For us, it's just about getting more chances and more shots on net," he said. "Typically on a power play, the more times you shoot it, a lot happens off rebounds or a puck will go in the corner and you can create plays off of that.

"So it's not about getting the perfect play. I think we just did a better job getting pucks to the nets."

Sennecke's power-play goal, which got the Ducks started Sunday, came 8:43 into the first period, about 80 seconds after Vegas' Dylan Coughlan was set off for interference. In addition to giving the Ducks the lead, it may or may not have also been a Mother's Day present for his mom, Candice Olson, who hosts a couple of interior decorating shows on Canadian TV and was in attendance Sunday.

"I don't know," said Sennecke, who also had an assist. "We'll have to see."

After Vegas' Pavel Dorofeyev matched that with a power-play goal of his own - no word on whether that, too, was a Mother's Day present - Mikael Granlund put the Ducks back in front less than five minutes before the first intermission. Brett Howden would equal again for the Golden Knights early in the second period, but Killorn's power-play just before the second intermission and Ian Moore's goal early in the third period put the game away, evening the series for Anaheim.

What all that means for the rest of the series won't be known until Tuesday because both teams have split their first two home games and neither team has been able to hold on to any kind of momentum, trading wins through the first four games.

That, too, is playoff hockey. But whatever momentum there is swung to the Ducks' side Sunday.

"Talking to the older guys, momentum is kind of the biggest thing," Sennecke said. "They said in the playoffs being able to keep it, and when you have it, kind of capitalize on it. We're going to look to keep it and capitalize on it."

"I think we got momentum," agreed Ducks coach Joel Quenneville. "Things are going good for as long as you keep it. That's better than chasing it. But at the same time, both teams played hard. That was a man's game out there today."

And now the pressure, like the temperature, increases.

"Everything's elevated," said second-year winger Cutter Gauthier, playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time. "It's the hardest trophy to win in the world for a reason."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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This story was originally published May 10, 2026 at 10:16 PM.