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Ducks look forward to second round series with Vegas

May 3, 2026

The Ducks will start Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by trying their luck on the Vegas strip as they visit the Pacific Division champion Golden Knights.

Both teams will enter the series, which begins Monday night, after winning their respective first-round matchups in six games. The Ducks traded punches with the battered Edmonton Oilers until a decisive Game 6 closeout and Vegas finished a theretofore close series with a convincing victory of its own over the Utah Mammoth.

Season Series

Though Vegas wore the divisional crown for the fifth time in nine years of existence and will host the best-of-seven affair, the Ducks swept the season series. They went 3-0-0 and won each decision by an identical 4-3 score. Two November matches reached overtime, one in each team’s building, before the Ducks won in regulation at home on Feb. 1.

The Ducks had six players who scored a point per game or better against Vegas. Troy Terry and Jacob Trouba each had five points in the three clashes, while Leo Carlsson notched four in the two tilts in which he participated. Lukáš Dostál occupied the net for two of those victories while the injured Petr Mrázek (hip surgery) picked up the third.

For Vegas, Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev and Tomáš Hertl were their top producers against the Ducks in 2025-26. Akira Schmid tended goal for two of the meetings and Adin Hill backstopped the Knights in the third. In this series, the Ducks will face Carter Hart not only for the first time all year but for the first time since Jan. 4, 2022. He was then a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, a relationship that ended after he was charged and later acquitted in a sexual assault trial involving five Canadian U20 players.

Behind the Bench

It’ll also be the Ducks’ first showdown with the always intense and often theatrical John Tortorella, who replaced 2023 Stanley Cup champ Bruce Cassidy as Vegas’ head coach with just eight games left on the schedule. They went 7-0-1 under his guidance to finish above both the Ducks and Oilers in what had been an airtight divisional race.

Vegas is Tortorella’s sixth different coaching gig and his fifth since winning the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. For now, his deal only runs through the conclusion of the playoffs.

The Ducks have plenty of pedigree on their side, with the second-winningest head coach of all time in Joel Quenneville. His four Stanley Cup rings, three as a head coach, made him a coveted commodity after his own reinstatement (both he and Edmonton GM Stan Bowman presided over a separate sexual assault scandal in Chicago). In Round 1, he pushed all the right buttons, stabilizing a wobbly finish to the regular season and getting the most out of his group nearly to a man.

Special Teams Tale of the Tape

During the regular season, Vegas had the league’s sixth-best power play and thus far it has had the postseason’s fifth-best conversion rate at 20%. Though the Ducks were below the median, ranking 23rd during the year, they have been No. 1 with a bullet since the reset, cashing in a whopping 50% of their man-advantage opportunities in Round 1.

Vegas also had the sixth-best penalty kill statistically, ramping up to third and a 93.8% clip in the playoffs. The Ducks’ penalty kill was at 76.4% during their 82-game campaign, 27th of 32 teams. They’ve been at 71.4% in the postseason, but started 6-for-6 and didn’t take a single penalty in Game 6.

With the extra attacker, the Ducks scored the second most goals this year, trailing only the goalie-pull-happy New York Islanders. That was part of them being the NHL’s top come-from-behind club in terms of multi-goal rallies, third-period comebacks and overall circling of the wagons. Vegas had nine 6-on-5 goals in addition to the second most overtime losses and fourth most OT games this season, as well as two more overtime results in Round 1.

Schedule

The Anaheim Ducks vs. the Las Vegas Knights second-round playoff schedule:

Game 1: Monday, May 4 – Anaheim at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.

Game 2: Wednesday, May 6 – Anaheim at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.

Game 3: Friday, May 8 – Vegas at Anaheim, 6:30 p.m.

Game 4: Sunday, May 10 – Vegas at Anaheim, 6:30 p.m.

Game 5: Tuesday, May 12 – Anaheim at Vegas, TBD, if necessary

Game 6: Thursday, May 14 – Vegas at Anaheim, TBD, if necessary

Game 7: Saturday, May 16 – Anaheim at Vegas, TBD, if necessary

Orange County Register

News Details

Ducks look forward to second round series with Vegas

Season Series

Behind the Bench

Special Teams Tale of the Tape

Schedule

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