Connect with us

Vegas Golden Knights

No Sweep for Golden Knights; Hill is Brilliant, but Dallas Gets OT Winner, 3-2

Published

on

Vegas Golden Knights Game, 3-2 OT Loss Dallas Stars Game 4

The goaltenders made the score look respectable when the game could have been a high-scoring affair. The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars traded scoring chances, especially in the third period. Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill stopped 29 scoring chances and kept his team in the game until they turned the game in the third period and peppered Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger in the third period.

The goalies were great, and overtime was needed for the third time in four games. The previous two games ended within 90 seconds, both Golden Knights wins.

Dallas controlled the first 40 minutes but never led until an OT power play just a few minutes into the extra period when Brayden McNabb high-sticked Ty Dellandrea. The winner came on a wild sequence as Hill lost his paddle when he scrambled back into position, and Joe Pavelski blasted a slapper from the left-wing circle. Dallas won 3-2 in OT.

The Golden Knights failed to close the series but lead 3-1. Game 5 will be Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

The Golden Knights PK, which has been an albatross throughout the postseason, yielded two power-play goals in Game 4.

Hill finished with 39 saves.

The Golden Knights blitzed Dallas with scoring chances and offensive zone possession for most of the third period. Much like Game 2, the Golden Knights flipped the script with the game on the line. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Golden Knights yielded 27 scoring chances in the first two period, but only four in the third period.

Hill was brilliant and had to make a game-saving save on Frederick Olofsson’s breakaway late in the third period. Oettinger rebounded from a Game 3 meltdown in which he lasted just over seven minutes before being pulled. Oettinger held the Dallas fort throughout the third.

The Golden Knights denied Dallas a shot on goal for the first five minutes of the game. There was no opening surge from the desperate team when Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith smacked a bouncing puck toward the net, and Willam Karlsson deflected it into the net, the Golden Knights scored first for the second game in a row.

However, during a late first-period power play, Dallas winger Jason Robertson poked the fluttering rebound away from goalie Hill’s trapper and then swatted it out of mid-air past Hill for Dallas’s first goal in five periods and 117 minutes.

Robertson’s paddle-ball effort changed the game. Dallas finally had their surge and fired 12 shots on goal and gained an impressive 11-scoring chances in the opening 20. Hill was the difference. It was probably his best game of the playoffs, if not of the season. He faced 27 scoring chances in the first 40 minutes.

As Dallas pushed through the second half of the second period, Hill made several high-danger saves. But Robertson tied the game again late in the second.

Oh, did Robertson have a game. By the end of the second period, he had 10 shots on goal and two goals.

His second was later in the second period and was another game-saver. His best shot didn’t count as on goal. Late in the second period, he hit the post, followed the shot to the other side of the ice, and was rewarded with an open net when Esa Lindell’s shot bounced off the back wall directly to him. Robertson (6) quickly buried it for a tie game.

Earlier in the second period, the Golden Knights took what could have been a commanding lead. After Oettinger denied Jack Eichel’s breakaway, the Golden Knights attacked. Brayden McNabb activated and slipped a cross-crease pass to Jonathan Marchessault (8), who didn’t miss.

Marchessault has eight goals in his last eight games.

Make sure to follow VHN on Twitter: