ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel, left, celebrates his empty net goal with Jonathan Marchessault (81) during the third period in Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 2 a.m.
DALLAS — A lot went wrong for the Golden Knights Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.
That’s hard to remember after Vegas pulled off a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars in a game where it trailed for a total of 82 seconds to go up 2-0 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoff series.
But the latest of what’s now six straight wins dating back to last year’s playoffs over Dallas, the Western Conference’s top-overall seed, wasn’t without adversity.
Vegas had to weather a thunderous opening storm from Dallas, overcome a Stars’ power-play goal that came off a questionable call and fend off a prolonged stretch late in their own zone. And that’s just an abbreviated list.
The common denominator between all of the hurdles was that the Golden Knights remained calm and never let emotion get the best of them.
“I thought we handled it well,” defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “We were real poised.”
The same can’t be said for the Stars — especially later in the contest.
It was still either team’s game at the start of the third period and the Golden Knights clinging to a 2-1 lead when the Stars seemed to start devoting too much energy away from the task at hand.
Wing Tyler Seguin slammed his stick on the ice and shouted at the officials for what he felt was a botched icing call. Dallas coach Pete DeBoer should have been the one to calm him down, but he was too busy having a conniption about the same ruling.
The griping continued well into play restarting and had only started to die down when DeBoer and longtime top assistant Steve Spott found their next subject to throw a tirade over. They didn’t agree with a penalty on Roope Hintz for clearing the puck over the glass.
The Golden Knights didn’t score on the ensuing power play — Chandler Stephenson did have one grade-A look — but the Stars failed to refocus their own offensive efforts until too late.
They advanced the puck right near Vegas goalie Logan Thompson multiple times in the final minutes but an epic run of blocks and poke checks from the visitors materialized. Alec Martinez (a healthy scratch in Game 1), Zach Whitecloud, Hanifin and Stephenson are just a few of the names that made plays to ensure no pucks as much as reached Thompson in the final six minutes.
Jack Eichel scored an empty-netter off a pass from Jonathan Marchessault after one of the sequences with 34 seconds left.
Most of the Dallas fans then headed for the exits.
The few that stayed in their seats booed the home team as they headed to the locker room with their heads down.
Best-case scenario for the Stars, they’re desperately searching for answers to make sure one of the best seasons in franchise history doesn’t go to waste. Worst-case scenario for the Stars, the Golden Knights are already too far in their heads.
The Stars look shook by not picking up a game in the series before heading on the road for Game 3 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
“Our guys really matured through the run last year,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I wasn’t here the year before so I can’t speak to previous runs, but I just like what’s said on the bench. I like our professional approach.”
In a way, it’s easy to understand the Stars’ frustration dating back to even before the series began. If there was one team they probably wanted to avoid, it was the Golden Knights.
The defending Stanley Cup Champions had bewildered the Stars too often before, eliminating them in the Western Conference Final a season ago and then sweeping this year's three-game series.
All the Stars needed was for the Golden Knights to beat the lowly Anaheim Ducks on the final day of the regular season to face the Los Angeles Kings instead. Vegas, of course, got upset and set in motion a chain of events for it to visit Dallas instead of Edmonton.
The Golden Knights said they had no preference; both opponents would be tough. The Stars used similar platitudes, but they weren’t as believable given the history between these two teams.
“Now we have home-ice advantage on them,” Golden Knights wing Keegan Kolesar said. “They are looking at it as, not backs against the wall, but the pressure is on them.”
And the pressure must weigh extra with the trouble the Stars are having against the Golden Knights’ best players.
The Golden Knights’ first goal of Game 2 was an inverse of the final one with two defenders coming towards Eichel and allowing him to toss an assist to Marchessault, who found the net for the second straight game. The score came at the end of the first period, less than a minute-and-a-half after the Stars had gone up 1-0 on a Jason Robertson power-play goal set up by a ticky-tack slashing penalty on Nic Roy.
Vegas’ new top defenseman, Hanifin, got the go-ahead goal in the second period on an unassisted, quick snipe into the bottom corner of the net. Hanifin and Marchessault now have three points apiece in the playoffs, only behind Eichel’s series-leading four points.
Cassidy may have credited the Golden Knights’ enviable composure to last year’s championship experience, but that can’t be the full explanation. Hanifin, acquired at this year’s trade deadline from the Calgary Flames, wasn’t around yet and his two-way steadiness has been a key factor.
Goalie Logan Thompson didn’t play in last year’s playoffs either, and he was even better than in a commendable Game 1 debut with 20 saves in Game 2. The best of the bunch came when he extended to barely get a pad on a breakaway by young Stars’ standout Wyatt Johnston in the second period.
Thompson felt the play, “got some momentum back in our favor,” after Stars goalie Jake Oettinger had just made a similarly difficult stop on Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore on the other end.
Dallas took some time to regroup and may have been shellshocked by Thompson’s save. Vegas just kept going after Oettinger’s, and it wasn’t much longer until Hanifin broke through for his goal.
The series isn’t over, but it might as well be if Vegas continues to be the only composed side.
“There’s an understanding of what it takes to win in this league now that we’ve been through it this time of year,” Cassidy said. “You can’t get loose. You can’t relax. You’ve got to stay on your toes.”
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
