Global Courant 2023-05-26 08:29:01
Joe Pavelski admits he probably appreciates the big playoff goals more as he gets later in his career. But they all still feel just as good, and his latest kept the season alive for the Dallas Stars.
“Just really living in the moment,” Pavelski said. “A great feeling for sure, and glad we were able to play one more game and go from there and expand it.”
The 38-year-old Pavelski scored on a power play at 3:18 overtime—a one-timer from the center of the left circle to the far post—and the Stars avoided a sweep in the Western Conference Finals with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.
Jason Robertson scored twice for his first career multigoal playoff game for Dallas, which played without suspended captain Jamie Benn.
“We’re looking for goals and that’s kind of my responsibility that I put on myself,” said Robertson. “I know these playoffs have been tough. … I was able to get the bounces we needed tonight.”
Jake Oettinger had 37 saves two nights after the 24-year-old Stars goaltender was pulled at 7:10 in Game 3 after allowing three goals on five shots.
The Stars had a man advantage in extra time after Brayden McNabb’s high penalty on Ty Dellandrea. Fifty seconds after the power play, Pavelski scored on a pass from Miro Heiskanen. They won their five OT games for the first time this postseason – Vegas won the first two games of this series past regulation.
JOE PAVELSKI SAID WE’RE GOING TO FIVE pic.twitter.com/oTfRN3CL24
—@NHL
It was only the second Vegas penalty of the game, both high-stick calls against McNabb. His penalty kick on Pavelski late in the first period set up a power play as Robertson scored his first goal with skillful stickwork.
Pavelski, in his 15th NHL season and still chasing his first Stanley Cup, scored his ninth goal in 12 games this postseason, but his first in five games. He has a career-high 73 postseason goals – the most for US-born players and the most for any active player.
“He’s timeless. … I’ve seen that movie over and over. It never gets old,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “He lives for those moments and he wants to be in those situations. He always has and almost always delivers.”
Benn was suspended for two games by the NHL on Wednesday for his cross-checking with his stick that landed near the neck of Vegas captain Mark Stone in the first two minutes of Game 3 on Tuesday night. Benn will also miss Game 5 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
‘Our effort was not good enough’
William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault scored for Vegas. Adin Hill had snapped his five match winning streak. He made 39 saves, including a game-saver with his outstretched left leg with about two minutes remaining after rookie Fredrik Olofsson’s sweep attempt in his first career playoff game.
“Our effort wasn’t good enough. Closing a series is probably the hardest game in a series, right, so it just wasn’t good enough from our group,” Marchessault said. “It was still a one-goal game in extra time. It was right there for us.”
Hill got it.
What a great padstop late in the game
—@NHL
Karlsson and Marchessault are among six of the original Vegas players still on the team from the inaugural 2017–18 season that ended with the Knights playing for the Stanley Cup, though they lost to the Washington Capitals in five games after winning of the first match.
Vegas missed a chance to complete a sweep the night after the Florida Panthers completed a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Vegas took a 2-1 lead midway through the second period when Marchessault, after hitting his stick on Ryan Suter’s back in front of the net, scored on a pass between the legs of the Stars defenseman from McNabb, another original Golden Knight .
Robertson’s equalizing goal late in that period came on a backboard ricochet just seconds after he had another shot on the post. That was the fourth goal of the series and the sixth in the playoffs after this regular season became the first Dallas player with a 100-point season.
If you’re hot, you’re hot.
It’s Jason Robertson (
—@NHL
On his first goal late in the first to make it 1–1, Robertson bounced Heiskanen’s shot into the air from just inside the blue line. As Hill attempted to secure the puck in his glove, Robertson unhooked it and then reached around and swept the puck into the net with his stick parallel to the ice.
With former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and struggling great Ric Flair both in the building wearing Stars jerseys, Dallas avoided being swept into the playoffs for the first time since 2001 against St. Louis in the second round. This was the Stars’ 21st playoff series since then.
The Golden Knights again scored first – though not like those three quick goals in Game 3 that led to Oettinger’s earliest ever exit.
Karlsson pushed the puck up and skated to the front of the net after passing to Nicolas Roy, whose pass went through traffic off a Dallas stick before Reilly Smith got it just inside the right circle and shot. Karlsson’s deflection past Oettinger, just 4:17 into the game, was his eighth goal this postseason.
“There were a lot of rushing opportunities,” said Smith, also with Vegas from the start. “I don’t think we did well enough to give them a hard time. So in two days we’ll get another chance.”
