ANAHEIM — With first place in the Pacific Division hanging in the balance, two of the NHL’s most explosive attacks did not disappoint in a firefight at Honda Center in which the Ducks out-dueled the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-3 in overtime, on Saturday night.
The Ducks won for the third time in four games and Vegas managed to extend its points streak to six games even in defeat. The hosts held onto first place, maintaining a two-point lead over both Vegas and the Seattle Kraken.
The two teams had met in Vegas on Nov. 8, when the Ducks blew a two-goal lead but came out on top in OT off a Jacob Trouba game-winner.
Troy Terry and Jackson LaCombe each registered a goal and an assist to match the total of Cutter Gauthier, who secured the victory in overtime. Olen Zellweger also scored. Lukáš Dostál halted 29 pucks.
Braeden Bowman, Tomáš Hertl and former Duck Shea Theodore had a goal apiece for Vegas, which got two assists from Jack Eichel. Akira Schmid also made 29 saves.
Momentum from one Herculean shift led to the game-winner by Gauthier. He capitalized on an unforced error by Vegas star Mitch Marner, who coughed up the puck behind his own net. Gauthier’s goal was his second in nine games following a stretch where he scored eight times in as many outings.
Terry, who has five of his seven goals and 13 of his 24 points this year in the third period or overtime, plus a shootout goal, nearly ended the game three times. Midway through overtime, his shot hit the intersection of the post and crossbar, then he had a backdoor chance and set up a strong bid by Trouba.
Though the Ducks created havoc in the Vegas crease with 30 seconds left and surrendered a shot at the buzzer, the third period ended scoreless to append Saturday’s showdown.
In the second period, there were fewer fireworks than in the first, but the Ducks closed a five-shot gap and knotted the score in the process. With 6:10 left, LaCombe’s brilliant bank pass off the boards sprung Leo Carlsson, who was joined by Terry for a two-on-one rush. Terry’s textbook finish from the inner part of the right circle saw him pick the far top corner and hit it squarely for goal No. 7 of 2025-26.
There were four goals in the first 8:17 of the contest and five total in the opening 20 minutes, leaving the visitors with a 3-2 edge.
Vegas broke a 2-2 deadlock with 2:01 left in the frame off a power-play goal. Hertl tipped Eichel’s shot from above the left circle after a solid keep-in by Eichel.
The Ducks got a pair of goals from their back end in the span of 34 seconds between the 7:43 and 8:17 marks.
Zellweger’s third goal of the year pulled them even with a far-side strike from just above the left faceoff dot. Terry’s assist extended his point streak to five games.
Gauthier’s helper on LaCombe’s tally extended his surge of commensurate length. Gauthier’s outlet pass for Beckett Sennecke gave him some daylight, but he had his dash to the net disrupted by Noah Hanifin. Sennecke regrouped, circling back above the circles and delivering a pass for a nuclear one-timer from LaCombe. It was LaCombe’s second goal of 2025-26, but also his second in his past four appearances.
Vegas had also scored in quick succession, notching goals at 3:25 and 4:37.
Ivan Barbashev jammed the puck in front, where an entrenched Bowman found it and stuffed a backhand shot past Dostál despite the presence of both Ducks defensemen, LaCombe and Drew Helleson. Bowman, an undrafted rookie, has poured in four goals in his first six games.
Vegas opened the scoring after Eichel won an offensive-zone draw and then played the two-man game with Theodore, whose low-flying shot from the point that had the eyes that Dostál didn’t, thanks to a Bowman screen.