LAS VEGAS — For the longest time, it looked like it was John Gibson versus everybody.
The Ducks left their All-Star goaltender to fend for himself in the first period of Friday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Gibson was under siege as his teammates chased the puck here, there and everywhere.
Matters would improve, Ryan Getzlaf would tie Teemu Selanne’s franchise record with an assist for his 988th career point, and the Ducks would rally from a three-goal deficit to force overtime for the second time in as many nights. Gibson allowed them to steal a point from Vegas.
Adam Henrique’s tying goal with 3:31 left in the third period capped the Ducks’ comeback and, after neither team could break the tie in overtime, Evgeni Dadonov won it for the Golden Knights, 5-4, in a shootout.
Gibson made 38 saves by the end of the night, including 20 during a first period in which the Golden Knights seemed to be skating downhill. Vegas beat him only once in the opening period, taking a 1-0 lead on Reilly Smith’s goal at 3:30. Gibson denied Smith on his initial shot, but couldn’t stop the second.
Nicolas Hague made it 2-0 at 3:52 of the second period.
But things turned ever so briefly in the Ducks’ favor late in the middle period, after Josh Manson fought Keegan Kolesar behind the play, wiping out an apparent goal at the other end of the ice that would have cut it to 2-1 at 13:53. Trevor Zegras did cut it to 2-1 with a point-blank goal at 15:49.
Sonny Milano assisted. Zegras and Milano set each other up for goals during the Ducks’ 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. This time, Milano jumped on a loose puck behind Robin Lehner’s net and fed a pass out front to Zegras, who was criminally unmarked. Lehner had no chance.
Chandler Stephenson and William Carrier scored third-period goals for Vegas.
Getzlaf and Bo Groulx set up Troy Terry’s third-period goal that cut it to 4-2.
Isac Lundestrom then trimmed it to 4-3 with 4:16 left in the third.
More to come on this story.