The Ducks earned it — the game and the expected-goals battle both.
The Ducks won 4-1, but the Rangers owned the shot-attempt edge. New York held 51% of attempts (27–26), yet got routed — a disconnect that reveals how badly quality diverged from volume.
The Ducks operated on a different plane of efficiency. High-danger chances went 7–3, and expected goals finished 3.98–3.27, a 55–45 split. More damaging: Anaheim's rush game was lethal. The Ducks converted 3 goals on 24 rush attempts, a conversion rate that exploits turnover-heavy systems. The Rangers couldn't adapt.
L. Dostal made the difference. He saved 2.27 goals above expected on 26 of 27 shots (a 0.963 save percentage) — goaltending that wins close games. But this wasn't close. I. Shesterkin, by contrast, faced better looks and had no margin for error.
The real gap: New York collapsed against its own expected goals. The Rangers generated 3.27 xG but scored one goal, underperforming by 2.27. The Ducks got similar looks and converted them. That asymmetry — Rangers generating and wasting; Ducks generating and burying — is what turned a close expected-goal game into a rout.
Pavel Mintyukov's snap shot from the high slot felt like the inflection point, though by then Anaheim's rush dominance had already won the game.
