Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Golden Knights’ third-period rally takes down Stars

Knights

Jason Franson / The Canadian Press via AP

Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a win over the Dallas Stars in an NHL hockey playoff game Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta.

Updated Monday, Aug. 3, 2020 | 8:30 p.m.

William Carrier’s first postseason goal is one he’s going to remember. It wasn’t enough that it was a between-the-legs beauty or that it had to be reviewed — but it served as the game-winner in the Golden Knights’ postseason opener.

Vegas battled back to score four unanswered goals in the third, capped by Carrier’s tally with 5:12 remaining, to rally and beat the Dallas Stars 5-3 in the Western Conference round-robin at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.

“I was just trying to get the puck to the net,” Carrier said. “Whatever way it takes to get it there.”

The Golden Knights’ third period was as good as the second period was bad. Goalie Robin Lehner withstood the initial onslaught, but a goofy goal opened the flood of pucks into the Vegas net.

A bounce off Alec Martinez’s skate, an open man in the slot and a power-play deflection put the Golden Knights down 3-1 before they could catch their breath. When that third goal went in, the Stars led 10-4 in shots on goal for the second period.

Nothing was working. The Golden Knights struggled to even get the puck out of their zone, forcing Lehner to withstand the siege. The line of Nick Cousins, Nicolas Roy and Alex Tuch faced 11 even-strength shot attempts in just over five minutes together and mustered just one shot the other way.

“I mean, we were flat,” forward Mark Stone said. “For 40 minutes we didn’t have our stuff, we didn’t have our game, we didn’t have our system in place. We just didn’t play well.”

So coach Peter DeBoer shook things up. The top nine in the lineup were jumped, and Stone found himself with Chandler Stephenson and Cousins and took it upon himself to drag his team back into the game.

Golden Knights vs Dallas Stars

Dallas Stars goalie Ben Bishop (30) makes a save on Vegas Golden Knights' Reilly Smith (19) during the third period of an NHL hockey playoff game Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP) Launch slideshow »

Near the midpoint of the third, Stone entered the zone and was mugged by Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen. With Heiskanen draped over him like toga on a frat guy, Stone evaded Heiskanen’s stick and fired a laser across his body and into the net, giving the Golden Knights life.

“We rely on each other, but I was just the one today that kind of got things started,” Stone said.

Things happened quickly after that. A little luck led to to the game-tying goal, when a broken Dallas stick sent Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault the other way on a 2-on-1. Smith’s pass to Marchessault hit a defenseman, but Nate Schmidt was there to follow through and fire in the goal.

That set the stage for Carrier. It was a gorgeous goal, taking an endboards rebound, dragging it between his legs and flicking it into the net. Even a replay to see if he interfered with the goalie couldn’t stop him, and Carrier gave the Golden Knights a 4-3 lead late in the third. William Karlsson iced it with an empty netter.

“It was a nice one, I didn’t know he had that in him,” Carrier’s linemate Ryan Reaves said. “We needed that. Our team needed that, our line needed that. It was a big third period for him.”

It started with that line shakeup in the second. DeBoer wasn’t happy in his first postseason game as Vegas coach, and after a quick goal it looked like the Stars were cruising. That Cousins-Roy-Tuch line that was bombarded in the first half of the game? Cousins was great with Stone, and Tuch and Roy found their game with Paul Stastny.

“I would've loved for us to play at a high enough level all game to where we wouldn't have to change anything,” DeBoer said. “You're going to have ups and downs, and we were just trying to get a spark from the group tonight."

The Golden Knights looked like a different team in the third period. They had 25 shot attempts at 5-on-5 compared to just 8 for the Stars, and outscored Dallas 4-0. Stone and Carrier were terrific, and Cousins and Zach Whitecloud picked up the first points of their postseason careers.

It was far from a perfect night. Dallas seemed to take the foot off the gas with a third-period lead, and the Golden Knights can’t rely on that if they’re down late against St. Louis or Colorado later this week. But Vegas showed it was the better team on Monday, even if it didn’t look that way after two periods.

“We found our game in the third,” Stone said. “Almost picture-perfect for us.”

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