Brayden McNabb Ejected in Game 5, Vegas Vs Anaheim Turns Physical

Brayden McNabb was ejected in vegas vs anaheim Game 5 on Tuesday night after his shoulder drove Ryan Poehling into the boards nearly midway through the first period. Poehling was helped off the ice and did not return, leaving Anaheim to finish the game without a center who had produced four goals and one assist in 10 playoff games.

McNabb’s hit changed Game 5

McNabb got a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct, then headed to the dressing room while Anaheim sorted out its lines after Poehling left with an upper-body injury. The sequence turned one check into a roster loss for the Ducks and a penalty kill test for Vegas.

The hit was severe enough that the back of Poehling’s head struck the glass, and he tried to get up before going back down. He was wobbly on his feet before being escorted to the locker room, a sign of how quickly the shift shifted from a board battle to a medical issue.

Poehling’s role for Anaheim

Poehling entered Game 5 with four goals and an assist in 10 playoff games, so Anaheim was already relying on him for more than depth minutes. Losing that production in a second-round game tied 2-2 narrowed the Ducks’ options in a series that had offered little margin for error.

Beckett Sennecke added another Anaheim push with a rebound goal and 7:24 left in the period, extending his goal streak to four games. That scoring touch gave the Ducks one more offensive answer, but it did not replace the center they lost or erase the swing created by McNabb’s misconduct.

A tied series, then a lost center

The immediate consequence for Anaheim was simple: Poehling could not come back, and the Ducks had to move through the rest of Game 5 without him. For Vegas, McNabb’s night ended in the dressing room after the interference call, leaving the Golden Knights to manage the rest of the game without one of their defensemen.