The Vegas Golden Knights silenced a packed house at American Airlines Center by jumping out to a 2-0 series lead over the top team in the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars, with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. In a tightly contested physical game, where both goalies made outstanding saves, the Golden Knights just grinded down the offensively gifted Stars, who just couldn’t capitalize on their limited chances.
Noah Hanifin had the game-winner in the second period, pouncing on a loose puck after a Jake Oettinger save came out to the top of the left faceoff circle. While sliding across, Oettinger left some space over his shoulder, but Hanifin went low, firing it under his glove, giving Vegas their first lead of the night at 18:53 of the second period.
The Stars opened the scoring when Jason Robertson scored a power-play goal for his second of the playoffs. Less than two minutes later, the Golden Knights responded when Jack Eichel fed Jonathon Marchessault with a pass that led to the tying goal. Eichel has been red-hot of late, having scored six goals with seven assists over the last ten games. Eichel would collect an empty net goal. It was his seventh goal and 14th point in the past ten games.
Game Notes
This year’s series with Dallas marks the third playoff meeting between the Golden Knights and Stars and the first where these teams aren’t meeting in the Western Conference Final. During the 2023 Western Conference Final, Vegas burst out to a 3-0 series lead over Dallas. The Golden Knights were victorious in back-to-back overtime contests in Games 1 and 2 thanks to the heroics of Brett Howden and Chandler Stephenson, and Adin Hill shut the door with his first career playoff shutout in Game 3 to give Vegas a 4-0 victory. The Stars were able to force the Golden Knights to Game 6 with consecutive wins. Still, Vegas’ offense took over, defeating Dallas 6-0 to become Western Conference Champions for the second time in club history.
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Evgenii Dadonov returned to the lineup from a lower-body injury that kept him out for two months. Stars head coach Peter DeBoer decided he wanted the veteran forward back in the lineup. DeBoer coached Dadonov in Florida and Vegas and said his time with the versatile 35-year-old made it simple to put him back on the ice.
Dadonov was acquired in a trade with Montreal last season. After bouncing between the NHL, AHL, and KHL, he has played in the NHL for the past eight seasons. He had 12 goals among 23 points in 51 games. He has been used on lines with Matt Duchene and Wyatt Johnston this season, so the assignment on the fourth line is a new challenge. But he had four goals among 10 points in 16 playoff games with the Stars last season, so there is real trust there from DeBoer.
Game 3 of the series will be on Saturday, April 27, when the Stars travel to Vegas for a 7:30 PM EST faceoff at T-Mobile Arena.
