Golden Knights will need the resilience they showed Monday going forward

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.

The Golden Knights had never won a game in which they trailed by two or more goals in the third period. And not only in this season — in the franchise’s three-year history.

So, naturally, that’s how they opened the postseason on Monday, rallying from down 3-1 almost halfway through the third to beat the Stars 5-3.

“The way we won I think was good because most nights when you only play 20 minutes, you’re not going to win,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “We learned a lesson without it costing us two points, and those nights are rare that you get away with that.”

Consider it a perfect welcome to the postseason, as resilient efforts like the one Vegas showed against Dallas are a requirement to any deep run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Teams get stingy with their leads in the postseason and the Golden Knights will have to show their mettle when they’re backed up against the wall.

Vegas dug itself a hole because of a sluggish second period. The Stars controlled the zone for 20 minutes and rendered the lines the Golden Knights had four months to decide on impotent.

Vegas was stuck in the defensive zone, and the Stars scored four times as a result.

It was the type of period Vegas needs to avoid going forward, one DeBoer called “one of the poorest stretches of hockey we’ve played since I’ve been here.” The players agreed.

The third-period comeback was rare, only the second such victory since DeBoer took over in mid-January. The Golden Knights’ regular season comeback history isn’t great, and though they developed a reputation for quick answers during their run to the Stanley Cup in their inaugural season, it didn’t extend to last postseason.

Six of the seven playoff games with the Sharks in the 2018-19 season were won by the team that led after 40 minutes, and the other, well, the Golden Knights were on the wrong end of one no one has soon forgotten.

All-time, the Golden Knights were 1-9 in postseason games they trailed after two periods going into Monday. Based on the recent past, their comeback chances were not great.

But instead of folding, a team that looked like the one that clinched the Pacific Division championship before the season’s pause emerged and registered four goals in the final 20 minutes. Vegas can play better but it’s not going to lead every playoff game and will need stretches like Monday’s third period to persevere.

The Golden Knights’ next two opponents as part of the round-robin qualifying round — the Blues on Thursday and Avalanche on Saturday — will provide a much bigger offensive challenge than the Stars. Vegas may very well fall behind in either or both games, but what’s important is how it responds.

“We showed some confidence and some resiliency to come back and to fix some of the things that were wrong with our game and found a way to get two points,” DeBoer said. “So that’s the silver lining.”

A loss would have made the hunt for the top seed much more difficult. Now, the Golden Knights are unlikely to fall into the No. 4 seed.

They’re tied with the Avalanche, which beat the Blues 2-1 on Sunday, for the lead in the western conference round robin — though Colorado owns the tiebreaker by virtue of a better regular-season points percentage — with two games for all four teams to go.

The victory was important for putting the Golden Knights in an advantageous position, but the way it came might have been more meaningful. They’re going to find themselves down in a third period again this postseason, and now when they do, they know they can rally back from the deficit.