ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mason McTavish scored the go-ahead goal with 3:40 to play, Sam Carrick had two late goals, and the Anaheim Ducks rallied from two goals down in the third period to hand the Vegas Golden Knights their first regulation loss of the season with a 4-2 victory on Sunday night.
Carrick got the tying goal with 9:05 left and added an empty-netter for the upstart Ducks, winners of six straight for the first time in nearly two years.
Adam Henrique scored early in the third for the Ducks, who rallied from two goals down in the final period to beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, who had earned a point in 12 straight games to start this season, the longest streak by a defending champ in NHL history. Vegas also had earned a point in 20 straight regular-season games since last March, the second-longest such streak in the last 40 years.
Anaheim trailed 2-0 entering the third, but Henrique got the Ducks on the board with a power-play goal from the slot. The Ducks tied it when Eichel coughed up the puck to Ducks rookie Pavel Mintyukov, who fed Carrick against the run of play for his second goal of the season.
McTavish then scored the sixth goal of his impressive breakout season with a slick one-timer under pressure in front of Vegas goalie Logan Thompson. The Ducks locked up the win in the final minutes when Carrick’s cross-ice fling deflected in off the post.
John Gibson made 29 saves for Anaheim, which scored four goals on five shots in the third.
Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel scored for the Golden Knights, who faded late on the second night of a back-to-back set. Thompson stopped 18 shots.
Vegas went up 2-0 during 4-on-4 play late in the second when the Ducks didn’t get pressure on Eichel, who skated in on Gibson’s glove side and wired a wrist shot in and out of Anaheim’s net.
Alex Killorn made his debut for Anaheim after missing the Ducks’ first 10 games with a broken finger, skating on a line with fellow 30-something veterans Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg.
Killorn got hurt in an exhibition game Sept. 27, delaying his first appearance with the Ducks after 11 seasons with Tampa Bay. Anaheim signed the two-time Stanley Cup champion to a four-year, $25 million contract in July, adding a career 198-goal scorer to a lineup that has struggled to score throughout the Ducks’ five straight non-playoff seasons.
Anaheim already showed signs of an offensive turnaround without Killorn by scoring a franchise-record 33 goals in its first 10 games.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Host Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Ducks: Host Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
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