Now it’s a series.
The Vegas Golden Knights lead the Dallas Stars only 2-1 in their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoff Series after a 3-2 overtime loss Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Wyatt Johnston scored the game-winner about at 16:22 of the extra period, flipping a puck past Vegas goalie Logan Thompson, who arguably had the best game of his career overall.
Thompson stood up to Dallas’ nonstop pressure all night, tying a career-high with 43 saves, but his teammates gave up one too many grade-A looks. The desperate Stars will look to tie up the series at 6:30 p.m. Monday night when Game 4 begins at T-Mobile Arena.
The environment was top-notch Saturday with a sell-out crowd of 18,536 fans, but they saw their beloved the Golden Knights mostly outplayed by the Stars.
Dallas came out hot and scored the game’s first two goals, by Johnston and Miro Heiskanen, and controlled all the action. It looked like the Stars would cruise, but then the Golden Knights were brought to life by a skirmish in front of the opponents’ note.
Right after Dallas’ Jamie Benn and Vegas’ William Carrier went off to the penalty box for concurrent roughing penalties, defenseman Brayden McNabb whipped in a wrister to cut Vegas’ deficit to 2-1.
About three minutes later, with Vegas shorthanded from a high-sticking penalty on Tomas Hertl, Jack Eichel rushed the other way and buried a shot past Jake Oettinger, who finished with 32 saves.
Oettinger had been having a rough series but found himself in the third period, where Vegas really turned it on and outshot Dallas for the only period of the night, and overtime. Thompson was outstanding, but there was only so much he could do.
Check back later for more coverage of Game 3 between the Golden Knights and Stars. Find live updates from throughout the game below.
Heading to overtime
The Golden Knights and Stars traded chances in the final five minutes of regulation.
None of them went in, however, so overtime is on tap at T-Mobile Arena with the teams deadlocked at 2-2 after 60 minutes of play.
Vegas and Dallas went to overtime twice in last year’s playoffs with the former prevailing in both instances.
The Stars have been the better team overall Saturday with a 38-27 shots-on-goal edge, but the Golden Knights have come on over the last period-and-a-half. They don’t have a goal to show for it since Jack Eichel’s shorthanded score near the end of the second period, but they had plenty of zone time in the third period.
Let’s see if it can continue in overtime.
All locked up after two periods
Tie game.
Three minutes after Brayden McNabb got the Golden Knights on the scoreboard, Jack Eichel locked them up at 2-2 with Dallas. It’s hard to believe given how much Dallas has dominated play in Game 3 of the teams’ Stanley Cup Playoff series, including a 32-15 shots-on-goal edge.
But the Golden Knights are suddenly flying. Eichel found himself on a breakaway despite the Golden Knights being shorthanded from a high-sticking penalty on Tomas Hertl.
He raised his right knee and screamed as he celebtrated amid a raucous T-Mobile Arena. McNabb complemented his goal with an assit on Eichel’s score.
Golden Knights break drought
Brayden McNabb went top-shelf to will the Golden Knights back into the game.
Despite dominating the action, the Stars lead only 2-1 with eight minutes to play in the second period after McNabb’s goal. The defenseman scored his second goal of the postseason, this one directly following a faceoff after William Carrier and Jamie Benn took penalties for post-whistle fisticuffs in front of the Dallas net.
The skirmish may have ignited the Golden Knights, as they now appear to have new life with McNabb spurring it.
Stars go up 2-0
Wyatt Johnston scored his first goal of the postseason in the first period, and now Miro Heiskanen has scored his first goal of the postseason in the second period.
The Stars lead the Golden Knights 2-0 nearing the midway point of the game. Vegas goalie Logan Thompson has stood up to the pressure all night, notching 23 saves, but Heiskanen cracked him with a wrist shot in transition.
Vegas was sloppy getting the puck out of its zone and then changed lines at an inopportune time, as Dallas got an odd man rush it converted on. Tyler Seguin and Evgenii Dadonov were credited with assists on Heiskanen’s goal.
Stars score first
The Golden Knights have given up the first goal for the second straight game.
The Stars lead 1-0 after Wyatt Johnston scored in front of the net at 11:11 of the first period. Vegas goalie Logan Thompson had been challenged consistently through the first nine minutes, but continually stood up with highlight saves.
Johnston finally beat him on a rebound that Thompson couldn’t get to. Dallas leads Vegas 13-4 in shots on goal, and the latter looks outmatched early.
Pregame
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy stayed a bit tighter-lipped than usual heading into Game 3 against the Dallas Stars tonight at T-Mobile Arena.
Forward William Karlsson was absent at Saturday’s morning skate at City National Arena, giving fans a sudden and short-lived concern about his status before Cassidy put it to rest.
“We anticipate he’ll play tonight, we just held him out this morning,” the coach announced.
Cassidy offered no further details but shared that a shake-up of the lines he showed during practice wasn’t all because of Karlsson’s absence. Vegas might switch up its forward groups for the first time of the postseason as it looks to extend its best-of-seven series lead to 3-0 when the puck drops at 7:55 tonight.
The biggest change would be bumping up Brett Howden to the second line, exchanging him with Tomas Hertl who would drop to the third. A second line of Brett Howden, Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone helped deliver the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup a year ago, and Cassidy is tempted to give it a chance again.
“That would have three very familiar lines, and our new guys — Hertl and (Anthony) Mantha — would then blend in with (Karlsson on the third line). We talked about that. We may do that tonight. I don’t know yet to be honest.”
The best of the Golden Knights’ three trade-deadline acquisitions in the playoffs so far has been a player that certainly won’t be moving — defenseman Noah Hanifin. The former Calgary Flame has three points, two assists in Game 1 and an unassisted goal in Game 2, playing in the top pairing alongside Alex Pietrangelo.
Defense has guided the Golden Knights so far in the series, but Cassidy would like to spark some more consistent offense. One potential route would conceivably be putting rookie Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored 13 goals in the regular season, back in the lineup but that won’t be explored tonight unless Karlsson is unexpectedly unable to play.
Dorofeyev did skate in Karlsson’s place during practice, but that was just temporary. If there’s a new third line tonight, it will feature Karlsson and Hertl as perhaps-interchangeable centers next to Mantha.
“We may have to do that just to see what it looks like, if it gives us a better balance,” Cassidy said. “We’ll always look at what makes us better and, if it does, we’ll go to that.”
Find some gameday information below and come back during the game for live updates at least after every period.
TV: Scripps Sports locally (Channel 34 on Cox, DirecTV and antenna); TBS and TruTV nationally
Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM
Betting line: Stars -110 (i.e. risking $110 to win $100), Golden Knights Even money (i.e. risking $100 to win $143); over/under: 5.5 (-125/+105)
Golden Knights’ projected lines and pairs
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Chandler Stephenson – Tomas Hertl – Mark Stone
Brett Howden – William Karlsson – Anthony Mantha
William Carrier – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar
Noah Hanifin – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Alec Martinez – Zach Whitecloud
Logan Thompson
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
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