LAS VEGAS — Goaltending will undoubtedly play a factor over the final games of the second-round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks, which is tied 2-2 going into Game 5 on Tuesday.
It already has been a factor. Carter Hart was Vegas’ best player over the first two games of the series, and the only reason the Golden Knights earned a split at T-Mobile Arena. In Anaheim, Lukáš Dostál exited Game 3 after allowing three quick goals in a blowout loss, then bounced back to make several key saves down the stretch of Sunday’s Game 4 win.
Neither goalie, though, has had a particularly strong postseason to this point.
Dostál has come up big for Anaheim in moments, but his overall numbers are among the worst in this postseason. His .874 save percentage is downright awful for a netminder of his caliber, and his minus-7.15 goals saved above expected rank last of the 23 goalies to play in these playoffs.
Hart has had more complete efforts for Vegas, including the first three games of this series, in which he stopped 89 of 94 shots for a .947 save percentage. He has also had nights when shots from distance slipped by him with surprising regularity, such as Sunday’s Game 4. That inconsistency has landed him with minus-3.18 GSAx (third-worst in the playoffs).
Considering how close the games have been between the Golden Knights and Ducks, the netminder who finds his groove next could win this series for his team.
Breaking down the goals the two have allowed this postseason, there’s an interesting juxtaposition.
Hart has been at his best on chances around his crease, with a .867 save percentage on high-danger shots (compared to a league average of .830). The 27-year-old hasn’t been forced to make many acrobatic lateral saves, although he certainly has the athleticism to do it. Instead, most of the shots from in tight have been the result of rebounds and broken plays. Hart has used sound positioning and composure to get his body in front of those shots.
As the attempts move further away from his net, Hart’s performance has declined. He has specifically struggled with wrist shots from mid-range, where he’s been beaten clean underneath his gloves several times. His .762 save percentage on shots from the mid-slot is well below the league average of .897, and his long-range numbers are comparable.
Meanwhile, it’s been the opposite story for Dostál on the other end. His 18 goals allowed on high-danger shots are the most of any goalie in the playoffs. He has stopped more than average on shots from mid- and long-range, but his .700 save percentage on shots from the doorstep has more than nullified those numbers.
Just look at the goals scored by each team on Sunday. The Golden Knights scored three goals from distances of five, nine and eight feet, for an average of seven feet from the net. The Ducks scored four goals from distances of 47, 28, 12 and 56 feet, for an average of 36 feet from the net.
Here’s a look at how many goals each goalie has given up from each distance in this postseason.
GoalieHigh-dangerMid-rangeLong-range
8
10
3
18
6
1
So, which goalie’s game do you trust more entering what is now a best-of-three series?
Looking at Dostál
If you didn’t account for his uneven season and subpar advanced metrics, it would be easy to see Dostál with a decisive edge. He often has had to prop up a porous defense to make the Ducks more competitive as he progressed into a No. 1 netminder.
Czechia took note of his ascent and essentially made him its lead goalie in international play. Dostál’s strong performance in the gold-medal victory at last year’s World Championships basically put him ahead of countrymen Karel Vejmelka and Dan Vladar when it came to who had the net for crucial games in the Olympics.
Dostál won 30 games for the first time, but his GSAx of -2.9 was well off the 14.3 of the previous season, which helped convince Anaheim to invest in his pricey five-year contract extension. He’s had a propensity to allow first-period goals this season. On numerous occasions, he has been beaten on the first shot. That has continued into these playoffs.
Listed at 6-foot-2, Dostál is a smaller goalie, and while he is terrific at tracking plays and — as he showed in staring down Edmonton’s Connor McDavid in the first round — exhibits great patience in a one-on-one setting, he can get beat on tips and redirections since he doesn’t fill as much net. However, Dostál has had trouble corralling shots he normally secures and is leaving too many pucks in his crease for opponents to jump on.
Does that make him a question mark when it comes to his ability to get the job done and send the Ducks into the Western Conference final? Not in the eyes of his teammates.
“He’s showed this year, or in his career, that he’s a guy that can turn the page very quickly,” said Ducks captain Radko Gudas, who won with Dostál at the 2025 men’s worlds. “He’s been there for us the whole year. He’s been for us in the national team in big games and he thrives in these games that are a little more pressure.”
After he was pulled in Game 5 against the Oilers, when he allowed three goals on nine shots, Dostál bounced back with a 25-save effort that was his best game of the series. On Sunday, he only needed 18 saves but a few were particularly timely to fight off a late push by Vegas. Tomas Hertl’s last-minute goal skewed his numbers on an otherwise effective night.
It isn’t eye-popping stats that keep the Ducks believing in Dostál. It is his steady demeanor and ability to handle pressure situations. Anaheim wouldn’t have had 26 comeback victories this season if he didn’t deliver timely saves to keep his team close.
“I don’t know if there’s a telltale sign, but I know that he’s a competitor,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “You can’t stop the last shot, you got to move forward, however it is. You got to be in the now presence of focusing and getting yourself comfortable for the next situation. Goalies, they’re different and in a different way, he seems like he’s more normal than a goalie.”
Quenneville then jokingly said, “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
In Dostál, the Ducks have someone who is calm and collected in the crease. He doesn’t express frustration when there are breakdowns in front of him. Emotion only appears when he lets in a stoppable shot. His teammates rally around him.
“We are a very tight group,” Dostál said Monday. “We know what we are capable of, like all of us, whenever we get on the ice. Obviously, when you get pulled like (in Game 5), it just happens. But the guys were very (supportive). There’s no doubt that they know what I can do.”
Looking at Hart
As mentioned above, Sunday wasn’t Hart’s best effort. Mikael Granlund’s goal was an unfortunate hop, and the third goal, which was scored by Ian Moore, was a wobbling slap shot through hordes of traffic. It’s hard to fault Hart much on either. The two power-play goals, though, he’d like to have back.
On the game’s opening goal by Beckett Sennecke, Hart was just a half-beat behind the play. That’s a rarity for him in this series. Hart’s reads and positioning have been sharp and ahead of the play for the most part, but he was late pushing out when Alex Killorn passed it to the point, which led to Sennecke’s blast from distance slipping underneath his pads before he could butterfly.
Killorn’s goal late in the second period was a tougher play for Hart. He defaulted to his knees early to seal the ice, which left him flat along the goal line and not square to Killorn’s drive, then the puck just snuck underneath his blocker-side arm. Neither was an egregious error, but it’s fair to expect him to save those shots.
Hart has bounced back from those types of games really well this postseason. Vegas coach John Tortorella, who also coached Hart for two seasons in Philadelphia, is confident he will again.
“He’s been terrific,” he said bluntly on Monday. “I don’t expect anything different tomorrow.”
After a similar game against Utah in the first round, in which Hart let in a few shots from long range, Tortorella said, “I know Carter well enough. He wants to work through it. I have full faith in him. … I just think he’s built that way. I think he cares. I just know him so well. He has an attitude and a mental toughness about him. At that position, he’ll be fine.”
He was right. Hart followed up that game against Utah by backstopping Vegas to four straight wins, including overtime thrillers in Games 5 and 6, when he came up with a series of clutch saves at the biggest moments.
In a season in which the Golden Knights have struggled to find solid goaltending, Hart has delivered that on more nights than not in these playoffs. He was once considered a franchise goalie, after two excellent seasons to begin his NHL career in Philadelphia, and has already shown flashes of that promise in his short time in Vegas.
He has the athleticism and quickness to keep up with a team that skates and passes the puck as well as the Ducks. If Mark Stone remains out with an injury, and if Anaheim plays as well as it did over the first two games at T-Mobile Arena, Hart may need to reach a gear we’ve yet to see from him in order to push Vegas over the top.
Tortorella is confident he can.
“It’s not complicated,” Tortorella said Monday. “It’s big plays at big times, and guys stepping up at certain times. Stakes are high now, when you start getting to the short strokes of the series.”
