Dallas Win Over Frustrated Golden Knights Saturday Leaves VGK A Game From Elimination In West Finals
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights are learning the Dallas Stars are a cut above the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks in competition.
And for all the Robin Lehner vs Marc-Andre Fleury goalie talk, it comes down to the VGK skaters unable to score goals on Dallas and its goalie, Anton Khudobin.
The Stars have pushed the favored VGK to the brink of elimination with a 2-1 win Saturday at the NHL playoff bubble in Edmonton.
Dallas now leads the Golden Knights, 3-1, in the Best-of-7 West Finals and is only a win away from burying the VGK’s Stanley Cup hopes. VGK coach Pete DeBoer said the Knights will be a tough out.
It was a similar script — the fast-paced, transition-based Golden Knights attack stymied by a hard-hitting Dallas squad that erased a 1-0 deficit in period two with goals by Stars veterans Joe Pavelski and Jamie Benn in the middle stanza.
And as usual, the Golden Knights had more shots on goal than Dallas, but the Stars had the bigger number on the scoreboard. Post-game remarks here:
VGK tried to add more juice and speed to their up-tempo brand of hockey against the Dallas Stars. And the number-one seeded Knights had the puck more than Dallas in the first 20 minutes.
But the VGK’s scoring drought continued as Vegas has a 13-5 edge in shots on goal in period one, but the score was 0-0 after period one. Khudobin, filling in for veteran netminder Ben Bishop, was rock solid.
In period two, Alec Martinez scored at the 12:16 mark to give VGK a 1-0 lead before former San Jose Shark Pavelski knotted the score at one at 8:26. Benn put Dallas ahead with a mere 59 seconds left in period two.
The Knights had a two-man advantage in period three, but could not convert.
It left the frustrated Knights one game from seeing their season end. Game 5 is Monday at 5 p.m.
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook. Buy Alan Snel’s new book: Bicycle Man.
