The Dallas Stars will have the opportunity to force the holding of an ultimate game. Thanks to two goals from Ty Dellandrea in the third period, the Stars took the measure of the Vegas Golden Knights with a 4-2 victory in Game 5, to reduce the deficit to 3-2 in the series.
The Golden Knights suffer two straight losses for the first time in the playoffs. After each of its playoff losses, Vegas bounced back with a triumph the following game.
“We feel good. We fight a lot in this locker room. When we were down 3-0, we stayed focused one game at a time, one period at a time. We keep our eyes forward and move forward one day at a time. We have confidence in our group,” said Dellandrea at the microphone ofESPN after the game.
Limited to one goal since the start of the playoffs, Dellandrea scored twice in the third period in the victory. Dallas did not have control of the game before Dellandrea broke the tie in the middle of the third twenty. Luke Glendening and Jason Robertson also scored in the Stars’ triumph.
In the Golden Knights camp, the goals were the work of Ivan Barbashev and Chandler Stephenson.
Jake Oettinger did well in front of the Stars net, stopping 27 of 29 shots he faced. At the other end of the ice, Adin Hill allowed four goals on 34 shots.
Despite a strong start to the game, Vegas had to wait a little more than halfway through the first period before registering the score. After 13:36 of play, forward Barbashev took advantage of Jack Eichel’s efforts under pressure in the offensive zone to recover the puck and score with a fine individual maneuver in front of the net, falling, to open the scoring.
The response of the Stars, however, was not long in coming. Seconds after watching Radek Faksa miss a golden chance to score, Glendening redirected a shot from Thomas Harley into the back of the net to collect his second goal of the playoffs and bring the score to 1-1.
Vegas came back to the charge quickly in the middle period to regain game control. Well served by Shea Theodore, author of a brilliant cross pass, Stephenson fired a sharp shot that beat Oettinger, to allow the Golden Knights to make it 2-1.
But as in the first period, the Stars took only a few moments before replying and creating the equality. This time, Robertson took advantage of the heavy traffic in front of the net to score his seventh goal of the playoffs. After seeing one of his shots blocked by Theodore, Robertson picked up the puck and fired another shot, which this time ended up in the back of the net to make it 2-2.
Vegas got a golden chance to take the lead seconds later. A shot from Eichel eluded Oettinger, but Max Domi intervened at the last moment to save a goal, as the puck quietly slid towards the goal line, to keep the score intact.
The Stars had the opportunity to take the lead for the first time in the game midway through the third period. Wyatt Johnston took advantage of a fine pass from Tyler Seguin to find himself alone in front of the keeper, but Hill closed the door on the striker’s backhand shot.
It was only a postponement for Dallas, who took advantage of Hill’s largesse moments later. At the entrance, Dellandrea let go a shot that made the Golden Knights goaltender look bad, after hitting a stick. Dellandrea’s second goal of the playoffs put the Stars in the driver’s seat with less than 10 minutes left in the final third.
“There wasn’t a lot going on in my head at the time, just excitement. Our line worked well all evening, our whole team even. We had a few missed chances so it was good to finally be able to score,” Dellandrea explained.
Obviously, Dellandrea chose the right match to hatch offensively. Less than 90 seconds later, he was forgotten in the crease and pushed a loose puck into the back of the net to score his second goal and double the Stars lead. Hill complained about Domi’s obstruction on the play, which was pushed onto the goaltender by Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague, but the Golden Knights did not contest the goal.
The series will therefore travel to Dallas on Monday evening for Game 6. Jamie Benn will be available for the Stars, since he will have completed his suspension
“It’s exciting, but we have bigger things to do. It’s a big win and we can go home with a new opportunity. We faced a lot of adversity in this round and the message in the locker room was to get the chance to have Jamie back for another game,” said Dellandrea.
