This has already been a factor. Carter Hart was Vegas’ best player in the first two games of the series, and was the only reason the Golden Knights earned the division at T-Mobile Arena. In Anaheim, Lucas Dostal sat out a blowout loss after allowing three quick goals in Game 3, then bounced back to make several key saves during Sunday’s Game 4 win.
However, neither goaltender has had particularly strong performances so far in the postseason.
Dostal has had big moments for Anaheim in a few moments, but his overall numbers are among the worst this postseason. His .874 save percentage is absolutely terrible for a netminder of his caliber, and his minus-7.15 goals saved above expected rank last out of 23 goaltenders to play in these playoffs.
Hart has produced a more complete effort for Vegas, including the first three games of this series, in which he stopped 89 of 94 shots for a .947 save percentage. He’s also had nights when shots from distance slipped through his fingers with surprising regularity, such as Sunday’s Game 4. That inconsistency has landed him with a minus-3.18 GSX (third-worst in the playoffs).
Considering how close the games have been between the Golden Knights and Ducks, the netminder who finds his groove can win this series for his team.
Breaking down the goals the two have allowed this postseason, there’s an interesting comparison.
Hart is performing best on opportunities around his crease, with an .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 so. Instead, most shots from tight have been the result of rebounds and broken plays. Hart has used sound positioning and composure to expose his body to those shots.
Hart’s performances declined as efforts went away from his net. He has particularly struggled with wrist shots from mid-range, where he has been clean bowled under 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 has been the opposite story for Dostal at the other end. His 18 goals allowed on high-danger shots are the most of any goaltender in the playoffs. He has blocked above-average shots on mid- and long-range shots, but his .700 save percentage on shots from the door has dwarfed those numbers.
Take a look at the goals scored by each team on Sunday. The Golden Knights scored three goals from five, nine and eight feet away, an average of seven feet from the net. The Ducks scored four goals from distances of 47, 28, 12 and 56 feet, an average of 36 feet from the net.
Here’s a look at how many goals each goalkeeper has conceded from each distance this season.
| goalkeeper | high risk | mid-range | long distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 |
10 |
3 |
|
|
18 |
6 |
1 |
So, which goalkeeper’s play do you trust more in this best-of-three series now?
looking at a friend
If you didn’t account for his uneven season and poor advanced metrics, it would be easy to see Dostal having a decisive edge. As he progressed as the No. 1 netminder, he often had to resort to a porous defense to make the Ducks more competitive.
Czechia took notice of his potential and essentially made him their main goalkeeper in the international game. Dostal’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 important games at the Olympics.
Dostal won 30 games for the first time, but his GSAX of -2.9 was significantly lower than the previous season’s 14.3, which helped convince Anaheim to invest in his expensive five-year contract extension. He has a tendency to allow first-period goals this season. On several occasions he has been defeated on the first try. This has continued in these playoffs as well.
Standing at 6-foot-2, Dostal is a small goaltender, and while he is very good at keeping an eye on the play and – as he showed when staring down Edmonton’s Connor McDavid in the first round – shows great patience in one-on-one settings, he can be beaten on tips and redirections because he does not fill the net as much. However, Dostal is having trouble hitting the shots he usually does and is leaving a lot of the puck in his crease for opponents.
Does this put him under question when it comes to his ability to get the job done and send the Ducks to the Western Conference Finals? Not in the eyes of your peers.
“He’s shown this year or in his career that he’s a guy who can turn the page very quickly,” said Ducks captain Radko Gudas, who won with Dostal at the 2025 men’s world championships. “He’s been there for us all year. He’s been there for us on the national team in big games and he performs well in these games that have a little more pressure.”
After being pulled in Game 5 against the Oilers, when he allowed three goals on nine shots, Dostal bounced back with a 25-save effort, his best game of the series. On Sunday, he needed just 18 saves, but some were especially timely to fight off a late push by Vegas. Tomas Hertl’s last-minute goal brought down his tally on an otherwise impressive night.
It’s not the staggering statistics that keep the Ducks’ faith in Dostal. It is his steady conduct and ability to handle pressure situations. Anaheim would not have gotten 26 comeback wins this season had it not made timely saves to keep its team close.
“I don’t know if there’s any telltale signs, but I know he’s a competitor,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “You can’t stop the last shot, you have to move forward no matter what. You have to stay in the present of focusing and making yourself comfortable for the next situation. Goalies, they are different and in a different way, he seems like he is more normal than a goalkeeper.”
Quenneville then joked, “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
In Dostal, the Ducks have someone who is calm and collected at the crease. He doesn’t express disappointment when he has a breakdown. The emotion comes through only when he delivers unstoppable shots. His friends gather around him.
“We’re a very tight-knit group,” Dostal said Monday. “Whenever we get on the ice, like all of us, we know what we’re capable of. Obviously, when you get pulled (in Game 5), that’s what happens. But the guys were very (supportive). There’s no doubt they know what I can do.”
looking at the heart
As mentioned above, Sunday was not Hart’s best effort. Mikael Granlund’s goal was an unfortunate hop, and the third goal, scored by Ian Moore, was a wobbly slap shot through a rush of traffic. It’s hard to blame Hart much in any case. However, he would like to get two power-play goals back.
On the game’s opening goal by Beckett Seneca, Hart was only a half-beat away from play. That’s rare for him in this series. Hart’s reading and positioning have been sharp and ahead of the game for the most part, but he was pushing late when Alex Killorn made it to the point, causing Seneca’s blast from distance to slip under his pads before he could butterfly it.
Killorn’s goal at the end of the second period was a difficult game for Hearts. He made an early miss on his knees to seal the ice, leaving him flat along the goal line and not matching Killorn’s drive, then the puck got under his blocker-side hand. Neither were serious errors, but it’s reasonable to expect him to save those shots.
Hart has bounced back really well from these types of games this season. Vegas coach John Tortorella, who also coached Hart for two seasons in Philadelphia, is confident he will do it again.
“He’s been fantastic,” she said candidly on Monday. “I don’t expect tomorrow to be any different.”
After a similar game against Utah in the first round, in which Hart hit few shots from long range, Tortorella said, “I know Carter well. He wants to work through it. I have full confidence in him. … I think he’s built that way. I think he cares. I know him very well. There’s an attitude and mental toughness about him. In that situation, he’ll be fine.”
he was right. Hart led Vegas to four consecutive wins after that game against Utah, including overtime thrillers in Games 5 and 6 when he came up with a series of clutch saves in the biggest moments.
In a season in which the Golden Knights have struggled to score solid goals, Hart has done so on more nights than ever in these playoffs. After two excellent seasons to start his NHL career in Philadelphia, he was once considered a franchise goaltender, and he has already shown glimpses of that promise in his short time in Vegas.
He has the athleticism and quickness to stick with a team that skates and passes the puck as well as he ducks. If Mark Stone remains out due to injury, and if Anaheim plays as well as it did in the first two games at T-Mobile Arena, Hart may need to step up to a gear we haven’t seen from him yet to get Vegas over the top.
Tortorella is confident he can do it.
“It’s not complicated,” Tortorella said Monday. “It’s big games at big times, and people are stepping up at certain times. The stakes are higher now that you start getting the shorter strokes of the series.”
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