*Photo from KSL Sports*
Vegas leads series 2-1
This is getting fun now. Jason Robertson dished out a pair of assists, Wyatt Johnston scored twice, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Vegas Golden Knights with a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday night in Las Vegas.
After losing the first two games of the series at home, the Stars went on the road and took care of business in game 3, winning in overtime to halve their series deficit. Behind Johnston and Robertson's two point games plus a goal and an assist from Miro Heiskanen, the Stars ensured at least a 5th game.
Dallas head coach Pete Deboer said of the win that "I loved the first period. I think we did some really good things. Executed at a high, high level and had great desperation to our game. Our game’s building, you know, Game 2 was better than Game 1. Game 3 was better than Game 2. So that's a great sign for me on our group."
It was the Stars who got things going in this one. Johnston scored his first goal of the playoffs 11:11 into the game, giving the Stars a 1-0 lead with assists going to Robertson and Heiskanen. 5:25 into the second period, Heiskanen scored to double the Stars lead to 2-0 on his first goal of the playoffs. Tyler Seguin and Evgenii Dadonov assisted.
Brayden McNabb got the Golden Knights on the board 10:40 into the second period on his second goal of the playoffs. At the 13:50 mark of the period, Jack Eichel scored shorthanded for Vegas to tie the game 2-2. After a scoreless 3rd period, overtime ensued. At the 16:23 mark of the extra period, Johnston scored to send the Stars out of the arena with a win.
Making his 3rd straight start for the Stars in goal was Jake Oettinger, who picked up his first win of the series. Oettinger stopped 32 of the 34 shots the Golden Knights offense sent his way, good for a strong .941 save percentage.
It was Logan Thompson once again starting opposite Oettinger for the Golden Knights, with Thompson getting his first loss of the series. He turned aside 43 out of the 46 shots on goal the Stars had, posting a .935 save percentage.
Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said of the loss that "We dug ourselves a hole that we were able to climb ourselves out of, but I do use a lot of energy to get out of there. Goalie, obviously, kept us in the game for the first 35 minutes, until we got the 2-1 goal. We’re playing a good team, hard to beat the best team in our conference three games in a row. So, regroup, we're off, make a few changes. But for the majority of the game, it was just the start that kind of cost us."
The series remains in Vegas for game 4, set for Monday night. The Golden Knights will try to gain a commanding 3-1 series lead on the Stars, who will try to tie the series 2-2 and force a game 6.
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