Dallas, Vegas Battle Early Season Game With Playoff Intensity, With VGK Defeating Stars, 3-2, In Shootout Tuesday; Attendance Announced At 17,612

 

---

   Story by Alan Snel   Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

The Dallas Stars are here for the Vegas Golden Knights’ fourth game of the season and Pete DeBoer — as LVSportsBiz.com predicted — showed up in his lawyerly three-piece suit.

This is the team that Vegas dispatched in six games in the Western Conference Final before the Golden Knights took care of business in the Stanley Cup Final against Florida to win the famed trophy.

It was a goalie matchup of the six-foot, five-inch Jake Oettinger, 24, of Dallas, and the six-foot, four-inch Adin Hill, 27, of VGK — two of the best big goalies in the NHL.

 

The Stars’ lineup included old Vegas nemesis, 39-year-old Joe Pavelski — a player who haunted Vegas when he played with the San Jose Sharks. And even Dallas’ Who’s Your Daddy, Evgenii Dadonov, a former VGKer, returned to Vegas — the player whom the Knights traded to Anaheim only to have the trade nullified because the VGK forgot that Who’s Your Daddy had a no trade clause.

Former VGK assistant coach Misha Donskov, now a Dallas assistant coach under DeBoer, also drew a nice response from the VGK crowd when his name was called. Donskov got the chance to raise the Cup last season.

*

For the fourth game of the season for the Knights, it was an intense game.

The first period was scoreless.

But then the fights came and the game began to feel like a playoff showdown. Nic Hague vs Jamie Benn. Ben “EF” Hutton vs Mason Marchment.

 

Mixed in there was a goal by 34-year-old veteran Craig Smith for Dallas and an equalizer by 22-year-old defenseman Kaedan Korczak of Vegas. It was Korczak’s first career goal.

Oettinger stopped every shot the VGK threw at him when the Knights had a 5-on-3 power play at the end of the second period.

It was tied, 1-1, after the first 40 minutes.

*

The secondary market tickets were not outrageously high if you were willing to wait it out and buy tickets at puck drop.  Vegas announced attendance at 17,612. Take a look:

 

---

Public Service Announcements

 

 

---

The Knights failed to take advantage of their 5-on-3 advantage.

After the Stars squashed the VGK power play behind a dialed-in Oettinger, Pavelski picked up the puck off a faceoff and unleased a knuckleball of a shot that beat Hill.

Dallas took a 2-1 lead in the third.

With only three minutes to go in the game, William Karlsson tipped in a shot fired from Korczak and just like that the game was locked at two.

Cassidy said, after the game, that Korczak’s experience in an intense, platyoff-style game in October could pay off in the playoffs in April and May.

Shea Theodore and Jonathan Marchessault scored in the shootout, while Matt Duchene scored for Dallas and that the VGK skated off with two points for their fourth straight win to open the season.

Final: Vegas 3 Dallas 2 in a shootout.

DeBoer was he will take a point in the standings and move forward.