PAVELSKI KEEPS STARS ALIVE
Joe Pavelski admits that he probably appreciates the big playoff goals more the later he gets in his career. But they all still feel just as good, and his latest kept the season alive for the Dallas Stars.
Stars 3, Golden Knights 2 (OT)
“Just really living in the moment,” Pavelski said. “A tremendous feeling for sure, and glad we could play another game, and go from there and try to extend it.”
The 38-year-old Pavelski scored on a power play at 3:18 of overtime — a one-timer from the middle of the left circle to the far post — and the Stars avoided a sweep in the Western Conference Final with a 3-2 victory over the 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 I put on myself,” Robertson said. “I know these playoffs have been tough . ... I was able to get the bounces that we needed tonight.”
Jake Oettinger had 37 saves, two nights after the 24-year-old Stars goalie was pulled 7:10 into Game 3 after allowing three goals on five shots.
The Stars had the man advantage in overtime after Brayden McNabb’s high-sticking penalty on Ty Dellandrea. Fifty seconds into the power play, Pavelski scored on a pass from Miro Heiskanen. They won for the first time in their five OT games this postseason — Vegas won the first two games of this series past regulation.
It was only the second Vegas penalty of the game, both highsticking calls against McNabb. His penalty on Pavelski late in the first period set up the power play when Robertson scored his first goal with some nifty stickwork.
Pavelski, in his 15th NHL season and still looking for his first Stanley Cup, scored his ninth goal in 12 games this postseason, but his first in five games. He has 73 career postseason goals — the most for U.S.-born players and the most
among all active players.
“He’s ageless . ... I’ve seen that movie over and over again. Never gets old,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He lives for those moments and he wants to be in those situations. Always has, and delivers almost every time.”
Benn was suspended two games by the NHL on Wednesday for his cross-check with his stick landing near the neck of Vegas captain Mark Stone in the first two minutes of Game 3 on Tuesday night.
Benn also will miss Game 5 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault scored for Vegas.
Adin Hill had his five-game winning streak snapped. He made 39 saves, including a game-saver with his extended left leg without about two minutes left in regulation on rookie Fredrik Olofsson’s swiping try 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 overtime. It was right there for us.”
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 in five games to the Washington Capitals after winning the first game.
Panthers throw KO blow
They knocked out Boston. They knocked out Toronto. They knocked out Carolina.
Jamie Kompon was not knocked out, despite Paul Maurice’s best efforts.
Let’s explain: Kompon is an assistant coach for Florida under Maurice, who is in his first year as the Panthers’ head coach. Kompon made a key adjustment to Florida’s power play earlier in these playoffs, and it paid off when Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal with 4.9 seconds left Wednesday night to give Florida a 4-3 win and cap a fourgame sweep of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals.
Everyone celebrates going to the Stanley Cup Final in different ways. Tkachuk dropped to his knees and slid across the ice, his arms outstretched. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
threw his arms skyward. Maurice walked to the other end of the Florida bench and punched Kompon in the ribs; it was a celebration, a unique one, but a celebration nonetheless.
“I wanted to make sure he felt that one as much as I did,” Maurice said.
Let that be proof: These days, the Panthers are up for any fight.
Vegas or Dallas — probably Vegas, since it leads the Western Conference finals 3-1 — awaits the Panthers to decide the Stanley Cup in a series starting next week.
It’ll be Florida’s second time in the title round, its first time on hockey’s biggest stage since 1996 when it was swept by Colorado.
“I still think not many people believe,” Tkachuk said. “I mean, the people in this area support and believe in us — but there’s not many people out there that do, still. And we know that we’ve played some really good teams so far in these playoffs and we know that the next team is going to be unbelievable as well. More points, more wins, more whatever. We’ll be the underdog, trying to prove people wrong again.”