Photo Credit: Jerome Miron / USA TODAY Sports
The Dallas Stars and the Vegas Golden Knights closed out the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs tonight at American Airlines Center. The matchup, which was dubbed by many as the equivalent to last season’s Western Conference Final series, went the full seven games in the round, and was decided by just one goal for the fourth and final time, with the Stars defeating the Knights 2-1 in regulation.
After very obviously struggling to keep up with Vegas’ pace of play in Game Six, the Stars had to come out of the locker room strong and make quick work of delegating how tonight’s game was going to be played. But that didn’t quite happen, at least not at first.
In a night that would be uncharacteristically quiet in terms of penalties, the Stars had the first of the night’s man advantages just four and a half minutes into the first period when Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar headed to the box for holding Dallas’ Jason Robertson.
Despite the advantage, the Stars struggled to push the puck into the Knights zone and even saw the Knights take a few shorthanded shots on goal that could have changed the outcome of the night entirely if not for Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger.
The Knights killed off the Stars power play and about halfway through the period, the Stars seemed to find their rhythm; skating pucks through the neutral zone, shutting down Vegas’ offensive in the Stars zone and sending the puck deep into Knights territory.
With just five and a half minutes remaining in the period, Wyatt Johnston, who now leads the Stars in playoff goals with four and playoff points with seven, notched the first goal on the scoreboard.
In a flurry of defensive prowess in the Dallas zone, Oettinger and defensemen Chris Tanev and Esa Lindell held off a flurry of shots on the Stars net. With the final rebound, Johnston recovered the puck and began skating it out of the Stars zone before sending it deep into Vegas’ zone.
It was recovered by Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, who attempted to backhand pass the puck out of the Vegas zone but was met by Joe Pavelski before he could get enough force behind the pass that was intended for Tomas Hertl at the blue line. The pass went wide of Hertl and was intercepted by Johnston, who was flying into the Vegas zone. Johnston skated the puck into the center of the Vegas zone with only Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb between him and Vegas goalie Aiden Hill. As he skated just beyond the top of the faceoff circles, Johnston took a wrist shot that sent the puck sailing between the left arm and leg of Hill, putting the Stars up 1-0.
The Knights wouldn’t go down without a fight though, and just four and a half minutes into the second period, brought the score even.
Vegas center Brett Howden skated the puck through the neutral zone and passed the puck to William Karlsson just before crossing the blue line into Dallas’ zone. Karlsson sent the puck along the blue line to Michael Amadio, who drew both Lindell and Oettinger to him as he sped toward the Dallas netminder. The move left defenseman Nils Lundkvist to defend against both Karlsson and Howden, the latter of which had skated past him and was advancing on the Stars wide-open net with an overcommitted Oettinger staring down Amadio. Amadio passed the puck to the front of the net and Howden tipped it across the goal line, tying the game at one.
But the tying goal wouldn’t be enough to hold back the Stars, who regained the lead just 44 seconds into the third period.
Dallas had control of the puck in the Knights zone and was cycling it around the faceoff circle to Hill’s left and to the goal line. Stars defenseman Thomas Harley held the puck at the Vegas blue line before sending it along the boards to Sam Steel at the faceoff circle, who backhanded it deeper into the Vegas zone to Radek Faksa. Faksa then dropped the puck to Craig Smith at the goal line as he skated around the faceoff circle, before posting up in the center of it. Smith returned the pass to Faksa, who bounced the puck off his right skate and onto the blade of his stick, before switching the puck to his backhand and sending it toward the top of the net and past Hill, putting the Stars back up 2-1.
Seven and a half minutes later, the Knights would get an opportunity to tie the game yet again when Oettinger was called for tripping Vegas’ Ivan Barbashev as Barbashev skated by the Dallas netminder, though contact between the two seemed minimal, if not non-existent, upon numerous replays.
But the Stars held off the Knights on the man advantage, and staved off the last minute and a half 6-on-4 attempt to tie with Hill pulled from the net.
Dallas meets up with the Colorado Avalanche for Round 2, Game 1 of which is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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