The Dallas Stars celebrate after they score against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series at T-Mobile arena Monday, April 29, 2024.
Published Monday, April 29, 2024 | 1:45 p.m.
Updated Monday, April 29, 2024 | 10:01 p.m.
The Golden Knights improved significantly from Game 3 Saturday night to Game 4 Monday night against the Stars at T-Mobile Arena.
It just wasn’t enough.
Despite the better effort, Dallas won its second straight in the series by beating Vegas 4-2 to knot up the series at two wins apiece. The Stars arrived in Las Vegas desperate after losing the first two games at home and channeled that energy onto the ice successfully to outplay the Golden Knights over the last six periods of the team’s first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Vegas will need to act as aggressively with its own desperation on Wednesday night when it travels to Dallas for Game 5.
The Stars didn’t lead for the first time in Monday night’s game until late in the second period, but they were able to hunker down from there.
After an evenly-matched opening 30 minutes, Dallas began dominating the action. The Stars tied the game at 2-2 midway through the second period when Wyatt Johnston scored his third goal of the series off a rebound on a power play.
Vegas couldn’t keep the puck out of its zone even when the action got back to 5-on-5. Goalie Logan Thompson, who had 28 saves, turned away several dangerous chances before he couldn’t fight off a crowded net-front with 86 seconds left in the second period.
A wrister by the Stars’ Craig Smith bounced off him and deflected off Ty Dellandrea into the net.
Dallas started its scoring with a prettier goal, tying the game at 1-1 late in the first period when former Golden Knight Evgenii Dadonov squeezed a puck from the boards into the corner of the net and past Thompson’s back. That answered a score from Vegas winger Michael Amadio — playing for the first time in the playoffs after having previously been a healthy scratch — who scored off the rush alongside linemate Brett Howden and defenseman Brayden McNabb.
Vegas regained the lead in the opening minutes of the second period again in transition, where Jack Eichel punched in a rebound from a Jonathan Marchessault shot that hit off the post. But the Golden Knights didn’t find much offense again for the rest of the night.
Thompson kept Vegas in it, and Dallas didn’t find its final goal until Roope Hintz slid in an empty-netter from the neutral zone with 1:22 to play.
Check back later for more coverage of Game 4 between the Golden Knights and Stars. Read below for live updates posted from throughout the game.
The Stars took control late in the second period. Now they have a 3-2 lead to show for it.
Vegas goalie Logan Thompson turned away a handful of shots from Dallas, but Ty Dellandrea finally got one to go at 18:34 of the period. Thompson has played well but has struggled to cover initial shot attempts.
It bit him on Wyatt Johnston’s power-play goal earlier in the period, and now it cost him against Dellandrea. Thompson initially stopped a wrister from Sam Steel but the net-front chaos in the aftermath led to the goal.
After trailing for the first period-and-a-half in terms of chances, Dallas also now holds a 25-20 shots-on-goal edge.
Stars tie it up
Wyatt Johnston’s hot streak continued with his third goal of the last two games.
The Golden Knights and Stars are tied at 2-2 midway through the second period. The game has turned chippy with both teams sharing frequent shoves and words after the whistle.
Vegas took the punishment for it when Alex Pietrangelo was penalized for roughing. That put Dallas on its second power-play of the night, and the visitors didn’t let this one pass without success.
Tyler Seguin first got a shot on goal before Duchene tapped the rebound to Johnston, who finished in front like he’s done so often throughout the series.
Jack Eichel puts Golden Knights ahead
Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault teamed up for their fourth connection of the series to put the Golden Knights up 2-1 early in the second period of Game 4 against the Stars.
Eichel broke out of the defensive zone and started a stretch of passes that conclude with Marchessault firing a shot off the post. Eichel was on the other side of the net, and cleaned it up with a put-back goal.
Eichel had a high-quality chance late in the first period that he couldn’t convert before the Stars’ defense recovered, but he wasn’t going to miss out a second time.
Stars tie it up
Vegas’ lead lasted only three-and-a-half minutes.
Former Golden Knights Evgenii Dadonov tied it up for the Stars at 1-1 with a wrister from the boards while he was practically parallel to goalie Logan Thompson. The packed T-Mobile Arena crowd seemed shocked that the puck found the net, but Thompson apparently didn’t fully seal the corner.
Thompson is coming off the best game of his career, but let in the Stars’ seventh shot of the night in Game 4.
Michael Amadio scores first
Less than a period into his first playoff action of the year, Michael Amadio found the back of the net.
It’s 1-0 Golden Knights late in the first period of Game 4 against the Stars after Amadio scored on a rebound off the rush about 14 minutes into the contest. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy wanted to put more speed on the ice for Game 4, and he’s found it with Amadio’s newly-formed third line.
In his second hustle play of the night, Brett Howden flew down the ice and first got the puck on net to set up Amadio’s score. Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger had stopped Vegas’ first 11 shots on goal of the night before Amadio’s close-range punch-in.
It’s been a careful game otherwise, with neither Vegas nor Dallas wanting to give up too much. Both defenses have played well, but Amadio and Howden moved fast enough to render Dallas’ useless on the goal.
Pregame
Speed and quickness were the biggest factors in the Stars knocking off the Golden Knights in Game 3 of the teams’ Stanley Cup Playoff series on Saturday.
That’s at least the reason the Golden Knights settled on after reviewing the game film. They’re making changes to combat the stealth the Stars showed in breaking out of their defensive zone ahead of Game 4 at 6:30 p.m. tonight at T-Mobile Arena.
Coach Bruce Cassidy announced at morning skate that winger Michael Amadio would play for the first time in the series, taking Anthony Mantha’s spot on the third line.
Amadio had five goals and five assists while appearing in 16 games as part of the Golden Knights’ postseason run to the Stanley Cup last year, and now gets the chance to carve a spot in the lineup again.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound veteran is a quicker skater than the 6-foot-5, 234-pound Mantha, whose strength rates as his best quality.
Mantha’s style may seem tailor-made for the playoffs, but he’s yet to record a point through three games. The 29-year-old has struggled to fit in ever since coming to Vegas via Washington at this year’s trade deadline.
The Golden Knights gave up two draft picks, including a second-rounder, to land Mantha so making him a healthy scratch in the playoffs is a big disappointment.
But at least Vegas’ other two trade-deadline acquisitions, Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl, have made a major impact.
Hanifin is tied for second on the team with three points in the playoffs, and nearly won Game 3 for the Golden Knights before Stars goalie Jake Oettinger gloved his close-range scoring chance late in regulation. Dallas went on to win 3-2 in overtime to cut Vegas’ series lead to 2-1.
Cassidy has put much of the blame on himself, and said Dallas had better adjustments from Game 2 to Game 3. He’s hoping to flip that tonight, and it starts with better-managing the fast-paced attack the Stars are now employing.
“They played a lot simpler,” Hertl said of the Stars in Game 3. “From the d-zone, they tried to flip the pucks and use their speed, and in the zone, they tried to swarm us from below. They didn’t give us much time around it. We know what they were able to do and hopefully we can handle it better tonight.”
After one game on the third line, Hertl will be bounce back up to play alongside Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson tonight. William Karlsson, who did not participate in morning skate for the second straight game but will play, captains the third unit alongside Amadio and Brett Howden.
Read below for more information on Game 4 and come back for live updates from throughout the game including at least after every period.
TV: Scripps Sports locally (Channel 34 on Cox, DirecTV and antenna); ESPN nationally
Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM
Betting line: Stars -121 (i.e. risking $121 to win $100), Golden Knights +111 (i.e. risking $100 to win $111); over/under: 5.5 (-120/+100)
Golden Knights’ projected lines and pairs
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Chandler Stephenson – Tomas Hertl – Mark Stone
Brett Howden – William Karlsson – Michael Amadio
William Carrier – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar
Noah Hanifin – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Alec Martinez – Zach Whitecloud
Logan Thompson
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
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