Wyatt Johnston scored at 16:23 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Johnston roofed a sharp-angled wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle over the left shoulder of Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson for the game-winner and his second goal of the game.
“Tried a couple (shots) low and it didn’t work so I figured I’d try and throw one up high and lucky enough it worked,” said Johnston.
Miro Heiskanen had a goal and an assist and Jason Robertson added two assists for Dallas, which still trails the best-of-seven series, 2-1. Jake Oettinger finished with 32 saves. Game 4 is Monday night in Las Vegas.
“It’s hard to beat the best team in our conference three games in a row,” said Knights captain Mark Stone. “We’re still in a good spot going into Monday night. We’ve just got to finally play our best game.”
Brayden McNabb had a goal and an assist and Jack Eichel scored a short-handed goal for Vegas, which had a six-game winning streak against the Stars snapped. Thompson tied his career high with 43 saves, including four breakaways in the second period alone.
Dallas took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Johnston backhanded in a rebound from in front of the net for his first goal of the playoffs.
Heiskanen made it 2-0 early in the second period when he finished an odd-man rush with a wrist shot that caromed in off the left post.
Dallas dominated the first 30 minutes, outshooting the Golden Knights 30-10. But Thompson kept Vegas in the game, stopping Tyler Sequin twice in the second period on breakaways.
The Golden Knights then rallied to tie it later in the period with two goals in the span of 3:10.
“We dug ourselves a hole that we were able to climb ourselves out of but we had to use a lot of energy to get out of there,” Stone said. “The goalie obviously kept us in the game for the first 35 minutes until we got the 2-1 goal.”
McNabb got the first when he snapped a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past a screen and Oettinger’s blocker side at 10:40 for his second goal of the playoffs. Eichel followed with a short-handed goal at 13:50, finishing a two-on-one rush with a wrist shot past Oettinger’s blocker side.
–Field Level Media
