Vegas Golden Knights Eliminate Ducks in Six, Advance to Western Conference Final vs. Colorado

Sixty-Two Seconds, and the Series Was Effectively Over

The Vegas Golden Knights are headed to the Western Conference Final. Mitch Marner opened the scoring 62 seconds into Game 6 at Honda Center with a between-the-legs finish that set the tone for everything that followed, and the Knights cruised to a 5-1 win that ended the Anaheim Ducks' second-round resistance in six games.

Carter Hart stopped 31 of 32 shots. Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice. Shea Theodore added a goal and an assist on the power play. Brett Howden chipped in a short-handed marker. By the end of the first period, the Knights were up 3-1, and the Ducks never threatened to make it competitive after that.

Vegas now faces the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. Game 1 is Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver, 8 p.m. ET. Two of the most playoff-proven cores in the West, separated only by an Avalanche regular season that finished with the Presidents' Trophy.

Mitch Marner Is Why Vegas Is Here

The Marner acquisition was the move that reshaped Vegas' Cup ceiling this season, and Game 6 was the clearest demonstration yet of why the Knights paid what they paid to get him. The between-the-legs goal on the opening shift was not a fluky highlight. It was a statement. Marner, playing in the kind of high-stakes second-round closeout that defined the worst stretches of his Toronto tenure, came out on the first shift and put the game out of reach within a minute.

He added an assist on Theodore's power-play goal in the second period. His usage in this series — top line at five-on-five, top power play unit, key defensive zone draws against the Ducks' best line — is the role Vegas envisioned when they made the trade. He has delivered every part of it through two rounds.

Carter Hart's Resurrection

The Hart story is the other half of why Vegas is in the conference final. The Knights took a calculated chance on him this offseason after his contract status resolved, and the bet has paid off completely. Thirty-one saves in Game 6 included a stretch in the second period where he stopped consecutive Ducks chances from the slot that, had they gone in, would have made the back half of the game genuinely uncomfortable.

Through two rounds, Hart has given Vegas the kind of consistent goaltending that the 2023 Cup run had from Adin Hill. The Knights' organizational philosophy of finding the right goaltender at the right moment, rather than committing massive cap dollars to the position, continues to look smarter than every alternative approach in the league.

Whether Hart can sustain this level against the Avalanche is the central variable of the Western Conference Final.

Pavel Dorofeyev Is a Real Player Now

Dorofeyev finished Game 6 with two goals and has been one of the breakout performers of these playoffs. His combination of shot quality and finishing ability gives Vegas a legitimate top-six scoring option beyond the headliner names, and his linemate chemistry with Jack Eichel has been one of the quieter, more important developments of the postseason.

For DFS players, Dorofeyev's price point relative to his production is the best value on the Vegas roster right now. He is generating shots at a top-line rate while still being priced as a mid-tier secondary play. That gap closes quickly once the Conference Final betting markets adjust.

What the Ducks Showed

Anaheim took a Pacific Division top seed to six games in the second round. The Ducks' run ended in disappointment, but the long view on this organization is significantly more optimistic now than it was a year ago.

Mikael Granlund scored Anaheim's only goal in Game 6. Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots and was, as he has been throughout the series, not the problem. The Ducks' issue was the same in Game 6 as it was in Game 1: their top-line talent could not match what Vegas put on the ice when both teams were healthy and rolling.

This is a young roster with real talent and a clear development path. They will be a problem in the West again next year.

Western Conference Final Preview: Vegas vs. Colorado

Game 1 is Wednesday at Ball Arena, 8 p.m. ET. The Avalanche are coming off a five-game closeout of the Minnesota Wild that featured nine-point series from both Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. Colorado has been the most complete team in the regular season and the most dominant top-line force in the playoffs.

Vegas counters with the deepest center group remaining in the postseason — Eichel and Marner can both drive a line against any matchup Colorado throws at them — and a goaltending performance from Hart that has been at least the equal of anyone the Avalanche have faced this spring.

The tactical battle: Colorado wants to play a high-event, transition-heavy game where MacKinnon and Makar generate offense off the rush. Vegas wants to slow the neutral zone, force half-ice possession, and win matchup minutes through structure. The team that imposes its preferred style across the first three games will likely win this series.

Betting and Futures Implications

Colorado will open as the series favorite, likely in the -150 to -170 range. Vegas at plus-money has genuine value if you trust Hart's current form to hold through another seven-game series. The Knights are the more playoff-tested roster at the core. The Avalanche are the more dangerous offensive team. That is the pricing tension to exploit.

For Cup futures: Vegas has shortened from +1200-1400 entering the playoffs to roughly +500-600 now. Colorado remains the overall favorite. The most underowned position on the board is Vegas to win the Cup outright at current prices, given their structural advantages in a long series and the experience of their veteran core.

DFS angles for the WCF: Marner and Eichel are mandatory inclusions in any Vegas lineup. MacKinnon is the locked-in foundational play on the Colorado side. Necas at his price point is among the most underowned high-upside plays in playoff DFS. Hart and Mackenzie Blackwood are both goaltender plays worth examining at their respective price tiers.

The Bigger Picture

The Vegas Golden Knights are four wins away from another Stanley Cup Final. The 2023 Cup roster has been retooled, not torn down — Eichel, Stone, Theodore, Pietrangelo, Karlsson, and others remain the spine of the organization — and the additions of Marner up front and Hart in net have raised the ceiling without compromising the structure that won the Cup in the first place.

This is the same blueprint working again: elite defensive structure, opportunistic top-six scoring, veteran depth, just-enough goaltending. The 2026 version of just-enough goaltending has so far looked like more than enough.

Colorado will tell us whether that is real.

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