The Vegas Golden Knights stepped onto the ice in Anaheim on Sunday night without their captain, and it showed. Mark Stone, sidelined with an undisclosed injury after playing just over four minutes in Game 3, left a massive void in the lineup. Without their leader this season, the Golden Knights posted a .519 winning percentage. With him? A much stronger .593. That difference was on full display in Game 4, as the Anaheim Ducks clawed their way to a 4-3 victory, evening the series at 2-2.

The stakes couldn't have been higher. In NHL history, teams that take a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series advance 90 percent of the time. When that win comes on the road, the odds jump to 92 percent. For the Ducks, this was a must-win moment—and they delivered under pressure.

Anaheim struck first, finally solving Vegas's once-impenetrable penalty kill. Before Sunday, the Ducks' power play was an abysmal 0-for-11 in the series. That changed at 8:43 of the first period when rookie Beckett Sennecke ripped a slap shot through Carter Hart's five-hole from the right circle. It was Sennecke's third straight game with a goal—a remarkable streak that snapped Vegas's run of 21 consecutive penalty kills.

But the Golden Knights answered quickly. Just 1:40 later, Jack Eichel unleashed a slap shot from the left circle that deflected off Lukas Dostal's glove. Before the Anaheim netminder could locate the rebound, Pavel Dorofeyev crashed the net, beat Mikael Granlund to the puck, and shoveled it home for Vegas's third power-play goal of the series.

While Granlund couldn't tie up Dorofeyev on that play, he made amends just over five minutes later. But the damage was done—the Ducks had found their stride, and without Stone anchoring the Golden Knights, Anaheim capitalized on the momentum shift. For Vegas, the absence of their captain loomed larger than any stat line could capture.