*Photo from the Globe and Mail*
Vegas wins series 4-2
It got interesting, but the series is over now. William Carrier had a goal and an assist, William Karlsson scored twice, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Dallas Stars with a 6-0 shutout victory on Monday night in Dallas.
After losing two straight games, the Golden Knights responded with a dominating shutout win on the road to pick up the win and clinch the western conference title. They've secured their second Stanley Cup Finals appearance and first since their inaugural season in 2017-2018.
The next step for the Golden Knights is their first title as a franchise. Leading the way on the scoresheet were Carrier and Karlsson, with Karlsson also recording an assist to go with his two goals. Keegan Kolesar and Michael Amadio had a goal and an assist while Reilly Smith had two assists.
After the game, Carrier said that "They go home and they get that desperation level high. Their bottom six guys played great. They scored big goals for them. I think our bottom six guys kind of took it personal here and stepped up their game. I think every year you see a team that goes far needs that, they need big goals from their bottom six guys. Dallas got it the last couple of games, and obviously tonight we were playing well."
Carrier started the scoring 3:41 into the game, giving Vegas a 1-0 lead with the lone assist going to Kolesar. Karlsson then made the lead 2-0, doubling the lead with a power play goal 10:25 into the period. Up next was Kolesar, making it 3-0 Vegas after one period with his second goal of the playoffs, assisted by Carrier and Alec Martinez.
Jonathan Marchessault scored the only goal of the second period, giving Vegas a 4-0 lead on his 9th goal of the playoffs. Karlsson then scored his second goal of the night to make the lead 5-0 just 2:06 into the 3rd period. Amadio then made it a 6-0 game with his 3rd goal of the playoffs, assisted by Karlsson and Smith.
Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said this game was "Most definitely our best game of the playoffs, and it came at the right time. You never know when it's going to happen, you always want to keep building. Boy, if we can bottle that going forward, we'll be a tough team to beat."
Starting in goal once again for Vegas was Adin Hill, who had a great start in a bounce back showing. Hill recorded the shutout to decide the series, stopping all 23 shots on goal that the Stars sent at him in the win.
It was Jake Oettinger who started for the Stars, who saw their season end on home ice. Oettinger turned aside 23 out of the 29 shots that the Golden Knights tested him with, giving him a .793 save percentage in the season ending loss.
Dallas forward Tyler Seguin said that "This group in here and how much we've been through this year, I didn't think we deserved to go out like we did tonight. Hockey's hard, man. Game 1 we didn't play great, but we probably could have snuck it out. Game 2 you play great and they sneak it out. They scored three goals on us in the first period twice in this series. Like I said, give them credit. I'm still proud of this group and how many responses we've had throughout the whole year."
Up next, the Golden Knights host the eastern conference champion Florida Panthers in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday night in Vegas. The Stars enter the offseason with a chance to make another run next year.
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