Anaheim Ducks are learning to thrive in playoff pressure heading into Game 3 vs Golden Knights

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Stanley Cup playoffs can change a team. The high stakes and the frenzied crowds annually inspire hockey players who can handle them to ever-higher levels of grit, guile and greatness.

The Anaheim Ducks are the latest young team growing and thriving under the weight of its first taste of postseason pressure. Although they ended their franchise's seven-year playoff drought, the Ducks were not a good defensive team during the regular season, too often settling for indifferent backchecking and mediocre goaltending that frequently didn't hurt them because of their offensive excellence. Anaheim allowed the fourth-most goals in the NHL, easily the most given up by any playoff team, before surrendering 21 goals to similarly wide-open Edmonton in the first round.

But when the Ducks had to protect a 2-0 lead over the playoff-tested Vegas Golden Knights with less than seven minutes left in Game 2 of the second round Wednesday night, they showed how much the postseason means. During one frantic goalmouth scramble, three penalty-killing Ducks dived to the ice to block multiple shots — Mikael Granlund even made one block with an outstretched toe — while goalie Lukas Dostal went side to side with extraordinary desperation, jokingly saying he was “playing more soccer goalie than hockey goalie out there. ” The extra playoff exertion was palpable, and their teammates on the bench leaped to their feet in excitement.

Anaheim hung on for a 3-1 win, evening the series and adding another layer of experiential bedrock to the foundation of a young team that intends to be in Stanley Cup contention for years to come. “A lot of us are going through it together for the first time ... and the whole experience is just bringing us closer together,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said Thursday.