Anaheim Ducks vs Vegas Golden Knights Tips - Anaheim to turn the tables on Vegas in another thriller

It’s part between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks. These two teams played each other on Wednesday, and it turned about to be a classic, a five goal thriller, with the Ducks seeming dead and buried at 1-4 down, only to come roaring back to level the match at 4-4, before Vegas dealt the killer blow and scored the winning goal. 

This time around the Ducks will be aware of the early strike power of Vegas and defend accordingly, and focus on the counterattacking skills which served them so well on Wednesday. The Ducks pushed the Knights harder than any other team of late, and now know Vegas are beatable. On Friday they’ll prove it with an upset victory. 

The Knights and the Ducks have played each other sixteen times, with Vegas leading their head to head by 14 wins to 2. 

Anaheim’s last defeated the Knights back in 2019, and Vegas have since won their last five meetings, most recently of Wednesday.

The Ducks are currently 5th in the NHL West Division. Anaheim have won just five games and suffered nine defeats (3 OTL). That equates to a poor 13 points from 14 games. Even so, Anaheim are just three points off second placed St. Louis in a weak division - aside from leaders Vegas. 

After losing three-straight games two weeks ago, Anaheim rebounded to win two of their next three games, before losing to the Knights on Wednesday. 

In that game, the Knights went ahead in the first period with goals from Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault. Alex Tuch made it three at the stat of the second period before Isac Lundestrom pulled one back for the Ducks. But when Nicolas Roy made it 4-1 for Vegas it looked like game-over. 

Then came a hectic 5 minutes in the third period when Anaheim scored three times with goals from Troy Terry, Adam Henrique and Ryan Getzlaf, only for Zach Whitecloud to grab the winner seven minutes later. 

The Knights’ win over the Ducks on Wednesday was their third-straight, and took their record for the season to eight wins and two defeats. 

The Vegas Golden Knights are the first major sporting franchise to be based in Las Vegas, and there is tremendous pressure on them and the wealthy consortium that owns them to be ambassadors for the city, and that means success on the ice. 

Incredibly, the Knights reached the Stanley Cup final in their first season of existence in 2018, but now they have to maintain that high standard. 

The Knights are on course to win a third straight West Division regardless of the outcome of Friday’s game with the Ducks, but whether this team is good enough to reach another Stanley Cup final remains to be seen.