Thanks to Joe Pavelski’s record-setting power play goal in overtime, the dallas stars avoided elimination in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals with a 3-2 victory over the Las Vegas Golden Knights
But there’s still a long way, a long way to go, for Peter DeBoer’s team to maneuver if they hope to join the Florida Panthers in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. Their best-of-seven series returns to Las Vegas for Game 5 on Saturday night.
Teams that lead 3-0 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series, like Vegas before Thursday’s loss, have an all-time record of 201-4 (98 percent). That includes 47-0 in the round leading up to the Stanley Cup Final.
So while the fourth overtime goal of Pavelski’s playoff career (a goal from left circle by Miro Heiskanen) may have been a feel-good moment for Dallas, there’s still a big powerful mountain for the stars climb
“These overtime games are so much fun,” said Pavelski, who became the oldest player in NHL history (38 years, 318 days) to score an overtime goal in a potential elimination game. “They’re a lot more fun when you win them. That’s for sure.”
“It’s a great win. It’s a start for us. We know our situation. That’s how (Vegas) got it going, with an overtime win (in Game 1). It’s nice to get one here and build from there. This is one to win. I’m not going to look much further than the next game. There’s no reason to.”
Vegas won the first two games of the series in Las Vegas by scores of 4-3 and 3-2, both in overtime, before crushing the stars 4-0 in Game 3 in Dallas
He stars he lost to captain Jamie Benn in an important game and game misconduct for checking on Mark Stone just 1:53 after that loss. Benn was later handed a two-game suspension for the incident that will also keep him out of Game 5. Forward Evgenii Dadonov suffered a lower-body injury in the first period of that game and will also not travel to Las Vegas.
With the great odds of a series return still in front of them, it would have been easy to understand if the stars unprotected heading into Game 4. Instead, it was the golden knights who were left questioning their effort afterward. He stars tore through the Las Vegas defense with 42 shots and finished with an astonishing 46-23 lead in hits
“Our level of effort, I don’t think it was good enough,” said center Jonathan Marchessault, who kicked off golden knights a 2-1 lead early in the third period with his eighth goal of the playoffs. “Closing out a series is probably the hardest game to win in the series, right? It’s just not good enough for our group.”
“We were trying to play it the right way, but I think their desperation was greater than ours. This time of year it’s not about X and O, it’s about who wants it more. And I thought they wanted it more than us “.
DeBoer had no such complaints. He was especially pleased with the play of goalkeeper Jake Oettinger, who made 37 saves, including a key point-blank save from Jack Eichel late in a two-on-one halftime. Oettinger had been pulled after allowing three goals on just five shots in Game 3.
“Great response,” DeBoer said. “Jake’s been that guy all year… I don’t think you’ve seen the best of him yet. We had a great mindset tonight. We had great energy. We had focus. We wanted to take care of business and we did. Now you have to. again”.
And again. And again.
–Field level media
