By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Robn Lehner’s head slumped. A puck just whizzed by him and the Golden Knights’ third season ended early in overtime at the NHL Bubble in Edmonton Monday as the opportunistic and clutch Dallas Stars moved on to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 3-2 OT win over the VGK.
The Dallas squad, which knocked out the Colorado Avalanche in seven games with a Game 7 OT goal in the previous round, won four one-goal victories against the Golden Knights to knock the VGK out of the Western Conference Finals. The Golden Knights suffered a severe scoring slump, notching only eight goals in five games against Dallas. The Knights ended up losing six of their final eight games.
The Golden Knights simply did not play clutch hockey in period three tonight, when they had a 2-0 lead thanks to a wrist shot goal by VGK forward Reilly Smith a mere 15 seconds into the third stanza.
But the VGK failed to close the deal.
The Stars bounced back to tie the score at the end of the final period with goals by veteran Jamie Benn and youngster Joel Kiviranta, who scored the equalizer on a power play with less than four minutes left in regulation. It was Koviranta’s goal in overtime in Game 7 against Colorado that allowed the Stars to advance to play the Knights in the West Finals.
Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said the Stars won the battles in front of both nets in what he called “trench warfare.” Here’s DeBoer’s post-game media comments.
The Knights’ Chandler Stephenson scored the lone goal during the first two periods when he zoomed in on a breakaway in the first period and scored on Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin. VGK defenseman Shea Theodore set up Stephenson with a gorgeous saucer pass to spring the breakaway.
Seconds into period three, VGK goaltender Robin Lehner made a nice save and five seconds later VGK forward Reilly Smith was celebrating his first goal in 11 games with a top-shelf wrist shot past Khudobin. It was Smith’s fifth goal of the postseason off an assist from Paul Stastny just 15 seconds into the third stanza.
But that was the final goal of the Golden Knights’ season. The Knights’ scoring slump ended up putting a close to the franchise’s third season in Las Vegas.
Poor Matt Helfst, the VGK superfan known as the Flagman. He was waving his Golden Knights flag at the T-Mobile Arena plaza, but enthusiastic security workers gave Matt the boot. Here’s Matt’s account from his Facebook post on the matter.
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