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Golden Knights look to finish off Stars as Western Conference Final shifts to Vegas for Game 5

The Vegas Golden Knights are one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history, but the Dallas Stars have no intention of letting them do so.

The fourth win of a series is always the most difficult to claim, and the Golden Knights came up short in their first attempt in a 3-2 overtime loss in Dallas on Thursday night.

Golden Knights lose 3-2 in OT as Stars stave off elimination
The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars played the most thrilling and evenly-matched game of the Western Conference Final, and the two teams required overtime for the third time in four games. But for the first time in the series, it was the Stars who came out on top, taking

It was the third one-goal game of the series and the third game that required extra time

“[The Stars are] a really good team, so they played a really good hockey game and they made it extremely difficult for us to win [Game 4],” Alec Martinez said. “That said, we were one shot away.”

The Golden Knights will look to get to their game right out of the gate.

“We’ll have the mindset of, ‘we want to finish it off’ again, we just need to do the little things right to do it and be on time with them,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said.

Vegas is 2-1 in elimination games this postseason, but tonight presents the Golden Knights with an opportunity to do something they have never done before: earn that all-important fourth win to advance to the Stanley Cup Final on home ice.

It won’t be easy.

The Stars proved in Game 4 that they are capable of making this a series, even without captain Jamie Benn – serving the first of a two-game suspension for his cross-check on Vegas captain Mark Stone in Game 3 – and forward Evgenii Dadonov, who also will miss tonight’s contest.

The Stars relied on their top players to extend their season and force a Game 5. Jason Robertson had a fantastic performance, finishing the game with two goals, 11 shots, two hits and two blocks in 19:25, and Joe Pavelski scored the game-winning goal in overtime on the power play. The three members of Dallas’ top line – Robertson, Pavelski and Roope Hintz – combined for five points in Game 4.

One thing working in the Golden Knights’ favor tonight is home-ice advantage, which means Vegas has last change. That will allow Cassidy to get William Karlsson’s line on the ice against the Robertson line as often as possible.

“They’ve got one dynamic line, they’ve got other very good players,” Cassidy said. “They rely on that line, and it was the difference [in Game 4]. We have certain players we feel that can neutralize it maybe better than others. … At home, you can control that a little more.”

Karlsson and his linemates have done an excellent job shutting down – or at least limiting – the opposition’s best players throughout the playoffs. That matchup will be key but not crucial in tonight’s matchup.

“We don’t want to get out of the rhythm of our game,” Cassidy said. “All I know is, we’re going to roll our four lines; who they play against might change in-game, but generally speaking, we trust all of our players.”

Another important factor will be the penalty kill, which went 0-for-2 in Game 4. Though the Golden Knights only took two penalties, both of them ended up in the back of the net.

“You can’t allow them multiple power-play goals,” Cassidy said. “I think that will catch up to you; it did [in Game 4].”

It was an issue early in the second-round series against Edmonton, and while the Stars can’t match the Oilers’ historic man-advantage, Dallas took advantage of its opportunities, including in overtime when Brayden McNabb took his second high-sticking penalty of the game.

Cassidy said the penalty kill “has been the one area we need to find a way. I don’t think it’s from lack of effort, we just gotta find a way.”

Even so, both power-play goals Vegas surrendered in Game 4 were on broken or unusual plays. The first involved a spectacular individual effort by Robertson, who used incredible hand-eye coordination to practically steal the puck from Adin Hill in mid-air.

Then, Hill didn’t have his stick and was screened on a frantic play on the game-winner in overtime.

On the other side of the special-teams matchup, the Golden Knights’ power play was lifeless in Game 4. It was hesitant, passive and completely ineffective; though it’s not a “key” to the game, the Vegas power play scored a huge goal on the five-minute major in Game 3, and it’s something – as Dallas showcased in Game 4 – that can alter the course of a hockey game.

In general, the Golden Knights need to be more opportunistic. They did a masterful job capitalizing on opportunities in the first three games of the series but were unable to bury chances when they presented themselves in Game 4.

Jack Eichel, in particular, had several prime scoring opportunities but was unable to convert.

Cassidy believes it’s only a matter of time.

“[Eichel’s] putting himself in situations to demand the puck, and by that I mean puck support. He’s skating off the puck well, so you’re almost forced to give it to him. He’s finding that ice. [Game 4] was a good example; he was in space quite a bit. Breakaway, 2-on-1, some outside drives… So that’s when you know a guy’s feeling it, when you start challenging people 1-on-1. It’s only a matter of time, if he gets those opportunities, that he’ll score.”

Eichel doesn’t have a goal in this series, but he has been noticeable throughout.

Cassidy said as the playoffs have progressed, Eichel’s confidence has grown, saying he’s “just a little more ‘give me the damn puck,’ and ‘I want to be a difference maker.’ He’s done it at both ends of the puck. If you watch him away from the puck, when it gets turned over, he’s one of the first guys tracking back to try to keep it out of our net.”

In fairness, Jake Oettinger was a huge reason why Eichel was denied. Oettinger had an excellent performance in Game 4, stopping 37 of 39 shots for a .949 save percentage after giving up three goals in the first 7:10 of Game 3.

Game 4 wasn’t Oettinger’s first stellar performance in an elimination game, either. In Dallas’ second-round matchup against Seattle, Oettinger was nearly perfect in Game 7 and came within 19 seconds of recording a shutout. He finished the game with a .957 save percentage with 22 saves on 23 shots.

Last year, Oettinger made a combined 100 saves on 105 shots in Games 6 and 7 against Calgary, finishing those games with save percentages of .947 (36 saves on 38 shots) and .955 (64 saves on 67 shots), respectively.

Needless to say, Oettinger has been clutch when the season is on the line. The Golden Knights need to try to get to him the way they did earlier in the series.

Vegas also needs to do a better job helping Adin Hill, who has been sensational.

The Golden Knights lost several net-front battles in Game 4, struggled to prevent the Stars from getting to the middle of the ice and gave up too many odd-man rushes. Hill bailed them out time and time again, but his teammates need to do more.

Keeping the puck out of the defensive zone can go a long way.

“Where we can be a little better is probably zone denials, faceoff clears, all those things to limit your time in your end,” Cassidy said. “That’s where we can make small adjustments probably without getting out of our structure in our own end.”

The Golden Knights also need a better 60-minute effort, as it wasn’t until the third period that Vegas started to take over in Game 4. Dallas played with more urgency, especially in the first 40 minutes; Vegas needs to respond.

“There’s urgency every night,” Cassidy said. “It’s not like we went into [Game 4] not wanting to win. … We lost a game in overtime where I thought there was some good hockey. Pockets of good, and pockets where they were better than us, and I think we were better than them at times. … There’s urgency, but there’s always pushback when teams lose a game, or in this case, they lost three.”

Combating that pushback is only part of it, though.

“It’s finding that balance between knowing what’s at stake and also approaching it as another playoff game,” Martinez said. “I think you’re better off focusing on the process knowing that if you play a good game, if you play a good 60, if you stick to your game, the end result will take care of itself. … This is playoff hockey; punches are thrown one way and then reciprocated, and [Dallas] threw a good one [in Game 4]. It’s up to us to come back [in Game 5] and be ready for that and play our game and try to dictate our pace at home.”

Home-ice advantage is something the Golden Knights fought for all season, and it sets up an interesting opportunity tonight.

“You obviously want to win in four, you want to close it out on the road,” Hill said, “but it’s always nice to come back and be in front of the home crowd. … I’m excited for [Game 5].”


Projected lineups

Golden Knights

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith – William Karlsson – Nicolas Roy
Brett Howden – Chandler Stephenson – Mark Stone
William Carrier – Teddy Blueger – Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague – Zach Whitecloud

Adin Hill
Jonathan Quick

Stars

Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment – Wyatt Johnston – Tyler Seguin
Joel Kiviranta – Max Domi – Ty Dellandrea
Frederik Olofsson – Radek Faksa – Luke Glendening

Ryan Suter – Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley – Joel Hanley
Esa Lindell – Jani Hakanpaa

Jake Oettinger
Scott Wedgewood


How to watch

Game 5: Golden Knights vs. Stars
When: 5 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena – Las Vegas, NV
TV: ABC, ESPN+
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM