Dallas Defeats Golden Knights In OT In Game 3 To Take Lead In West Finals
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Golden Knights had no energy in Game 1 and the ol’ Misfits Mentality returned in Game 2 for a 3-0 win against the Dallas Stars in the NHL’s West Finals at the Pandemic Bubble in Edmonton.
And in Game 3, it was a tight contest that was decided in overtime by Dallas’ Alex Radulov who went top shelf to give the Stars a 3-2 win only 31 seconds into OT and a two-games-to-one lead in the Best-of-7 Western Conference Finals.
“We put a lot of work in tonight. We had a bunch of chances to win the game in the last five minutes. They’re opportunistic,” VGK coach Pete DeBoer said.
The Knights enjoyed a 12-4 edge in shots on goal in Game 3’s first period, but Dallas matched that with some hard hits, physical play and stopping the Knights at the blue line.
VGK goalie Robin Lehner was looking for his fifth shutout of the playoffs as he was 9-4 in the playoffs heading into Game 3 , relegating fan favorite and future Hall-of-Famer Marc-Andre Fleury to a back-up. It’s sad for VGK fans, but there is a chance that Fleury’s skating performance in the Apple iPhone TV commercial might be the last time they see the goalie as a Knight. His salary is a $7 million hit against the cap next season and keeping both Lehner and Fleury appears financially tenuous at best for the Knights management.
Dallas played much better in period two and scored with a mere 16.7 seconds left in the stanza to give the Stars a 1-0 edge heading into period three. Dallas defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored on a breakaway on Lehner, who got his skate on the puck but the puck dribbled into the net.
“It’s always a tight-checking game. They don’t give up much,” veteran VGK forward Paul Stastny said in between periods two and three.
It was that man again — VGK defenseman Shea Theodore — who notched the equalizer in period three on a power play after the Knights could not score on a 5-on-3 situation. Theodore did hit the post with a shot on Dallas goalie Anton Khubodin during the two-man advantage, but he flipped home a wrister from inside the blue line to knot the score with his seventh goal of the postseason.
With 12:25 left in period three, the Stars’ Jamie Benn scored on a weak goal through the legs of Lehner to restore Dallas’ one-goal lead. It came after the Golden Knights swarmed the Dallas net.
The drama continued with 7:14 left in period three when Tuch fired in a wrist shot to tie the score — which triggered a challenge for goalie interference by Dallas. It was determined a good goal and went on a power play because of the unsuccessful challenge.
There was no scoring the rest of the way and off to overtime the two Western Conference teams went.
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