Dallas Stars Beat Golden Knights 3-2 to Avoid West Sweep

AP Photo/Gareth Patterson

Joe Pavelski scored on a power play at 3:18 of overtime – a one-timer from the middle of the left circle to the far post – and the Dallas Stars avoided a sweep in the Western Conference final with a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.

Jason Robertson scored twice for his first career multigoal playoff game for Dallas, which played without suspended captain Jamie Benn. Jake Oettinger had 37 saves, two nights after he was pulled 7:10 into Game 3 after allowing three goals on five shots.

The Stars had the man advantage in overtime after Brayden McNabb’s high-sticking penalty on Ty Dellandrea, and they needed only 50 seconds to end it.

It was only the second Vegas penalty of the game, both high-sticking calls against McNabb. His penalty on Pavelski late in the first period set up the power play when Robertson scored his first goal.

The 38-year-old Pavelski scored his ninth goal in 12 games this postseason. He has 73 career postseason goals – the most for U.S.-born players and the most among all active players.

Benn was suspended two games by the NHL on Wednesday for his cross-check with his stick landing near the neck of Vegas captain Mark Stone in the first two minutes of Game 3 on Tuesday night. Benn also will miss Game 5 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault scored for Vegas. Adin Hill had his five-game winning streak snapped. He made 39 saves, including a game-saver with his extended left leg without about two minutes left in regulation on rookie Fredrik Olofsson’s swiping try in his first career playoff game.

Karlsson and Marchessault are among six of the original Vegas players still on the team from the inaugural 2017-18 season that ended with the Knights playing for the Stanley Cup, though they lost in five games to the Washington Capitals after winning the first game.

Vegas missed a chance to complete a sweep, a night after the Florida Panthers finished off a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

Vegas took a 2-1 lead midway through the second period when Marchessault, after whacking his stick on the back of Ryan Suter in front of the net, scored on a pass between the Stars defenseman’s legs from Brayden McNabb, another original Golden Knight.

Robertson’s tying goal late in that period came on a ricochet off the back board just seconds after he had another shot hit the post. That was the fourth goal of this series, and sixth in the playoffs, after this regular season becoming the first Dallas player with a 100-point season.

With former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and wrestling great Ric Flair both in the building wearing Stars jerseys Dallas was avoided being swept in the playoffs for the first time since 2001 against St. Louis in the second round. This was the Stars’ 21st playoff series since then.

The Golden Knights scored first again – though not like the first three goals on five shots in the first 7:10 of Game 3 led to the earliest exit ever for Oettinger.
Karlsson pushed the puck up and skated to the front of the net after passing to Nicolas Roy, whose pass through traffic went off a Dallas stick before Reilly Smith – also with Vegas since the beginning – got it just inside the right circle and took a shot. Karlsson’s deflection past Oettinger only 4:17 into the game was his eighth goal this postseason.

Dallas got even at 1-1 on a power play with 4:18 left in the first period after some nifty stickwork by Robertson, who deflected Miro Heiskanen’s shot from just inside the blue line up into the air.

As Hill was trying to secure the puck into his glove, Robertson knocked it free and then reached around and swiped the puck into the net with his stick parallel to the ice.

Hill, coming off his first career playoff shutout, had stopped 60 shots in a row over a span that included overtime in Game 2 after stopping all 10 shots he faced in the third period.