Jason Robertson scored a couple of goals, one of which was credited as the game winner for Dallas in a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Jake Oettinger had 18 saves for Dallas, including one that robbed Pavel Dorofeyev with 26 seconds left in the game.
Jack Eichel had two of the three Golden Knights goals, extending his points streak to five games. Shea Theodore had the other Vegas goal, and Mark Stone had three assists for his first back-to-back multi-point game since October 25-26. Adin Hill had 23 saves in the losing effort.
For the first few minutes in the first, it was very much a feeling out process; each side looking for an opening to take hold. Vegas was the first to cash in, thanks in part to a hooking call on Jamie Benn. Jack Eichel took a feed from Mark Stone and slammed home a blast for his 13th goal of the season from the faceoff circle to make it 1-0.
The Golden Knights and Stars were locked in a heavyweight battle
Dallas countered thanks to their own power play 2:05 later. Evgeni Dadonov arced a lovely pass that was deflected unfortunately off of Zach Whitecloud’s glove, which Roope Hintz tipped past Hill for his 20th goal in a very Joe Pavelski fashion to tie the game.
After that, the rest of the period was about what you would expect from a game between Western Conference heavyweights: tight, well played, trading chances whenever they’d pop up. It was, basically, as close to a proper playoff vibe as the month of January could give.
The first seven and a half minutes of the second period looked like a carbon copy of the first as momentum bounced back and forth between both teams. After a great kill by the Golden Knights, Dallas jumped on another mistake to take the lead. Jason Robertson cashing in his 16th goal of the season from another Dadonov feed that froze Hill just long enough to wrist it in.
Vegas quickly countered again on the power play to tie the game. This time, it was Shea Theodore benefiting from a superb tic-tac-toe sequence from Tomas Hertl and Mark Stone for his sixth goal of the season to tie things up again.
Jason Robertson leads the Dallas Stars to victory
Things remained even as the second period went on, though the Stars were generating slightly more chances than Vegas. With under five minutes left, two of those chances found the back of the net. The first came from another deflection, this time from Jamie Benn for his 13th. Then Jason Robertson followed 1:36 later, sliding a shot past a sea of legs and past Hill for his second goal of the game and 17th of the year.
For the first half of the third period, the Golden Knights were desperately scraping for any type of energy to try to get back in the game. Finally, at the 10:35 mark, Jack Eichel corralled an Ivan Barbashev shot that trickled toward him and tapped it in for his second goal and 14th of the season, making it 4-3 Dallas.
The goal more than did its job, livening up Vegas and eventually leading them back to the power play that didn’t pan out. Over the rest of the period, there were a few moments where the tying goal was close. But thanks to the glove of Jake Oettinger, it would not come to pass.
Next on the Marquee:
From the frying pan into a gladiatorial arena filled with sharks! The defending champion Florida Panthers come to the Fortress on Sunday night at 5 P.M. to wrap up the season two-fer. It’s a little annoying that this isn’t a prime time game, even with the AFC Championship playing around the same time. But at least it’s there providing some nice counterprogramming for those who aren’t NFL fans, which is nice. As for the game, the last one was a thrilling heartbreaker, and chances are this one will be too (for the Panthers hopefully). Till then…
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