Dallas Stars eliminate Vegas Golden Knights in Game 7

DALLAS — Radek Faksa broke a tie in his return to the Dallas lineup, 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston scored in one other Game 7 and the Stars defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Sunday night time to wrap up the first-round sequence.

After being out due to an undisclosed damage since leaving the bench late in Game 2, Faksa scored 44 seconds into the third interval with a backhander from the circle to the left of goalie Adin Hill.

“It was a huge relief,” Faksa mentioned on the TNT postgame present. “It was the biggest goal of my career. … I promised [my son] I would score a goal tonight, and I’m glad I did.”

Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger had 21 saves in his second Game 7 victory. He additionally had the Stars’ solely penalty, although they killed that off after he was referred to as for tripping (*7*) in entrance of the web halfway by means of the third.

“The last period was a clinic. Just so proud of the guys of how we responded,” Oettinger mentioned. “It’s a long playoffs, and you’re going to need different guys to step up at different times. A lot of hockey left, so hopefully a lot more heroes. It’s going to be a run ride.”

The Stars, the No. 1 seed in the West, transfer on to play well-rested Colorado in the second spherical with the primary two video games in Dallas. The Avalanche wrapped up their sequence in opposition to Winnipeg with a Game 5 victory Tuesday night time.

Brett Howden scored for Vegas, which could not pull off one other sequence winner in Dallas, the place final yr the Knights wrapped up the Western Conference finals with a win in Game 6. Hill had 22 saves in his third sport of this sequence after Logan Thompson began the primary 4.

The visiting crew received the primary 4 video games in this sequence till the house groups held serve the final three.

Dallas has received Game 7s in every of its first two postseasons for coach Pete DeBoer, who’s now 8-0 in his profession in such video games with 4 completely different groups. That consists of the Knights’ solely Game 7 wins in 2020 and 2021 when he was their coach.

Johnston scored his series-high fourth aim on a wrister from the highest of the slot with 5:26 left in the primary interval after selecting off a clearing move by Shea Theodore that his teammate, Tomas Hertl, missed when taking a twisting swipe at it.

“It was so much fun,” Johnston mentioned in his postgame interview on Bally Sports Southwest. “It’s what we all grew up dreaming about. As hockey players, you want to play in Game 7s. And there was so much energy in the building.”

A day after his twentieth birthday final yr, Johnston grew to become the youngest participant in NHL historical past with a game-clinching aim in a Game 7. He gathered a puck that ricocheted off the again boards in the third interval of the Stars’ 2-1 win over Seattle in that second-round sequence.

The aim Sunday got here in fast succession after Vegas had two scoring possibilities. Oettinger made a troublesome save to disclaim Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault, then shot the rebound off the left put up, and bought a success on Johnston earlier than the Dallas teen skated to the opposite finish and scored about 10 seconds later.

Vegas, which returned 22 of its 27 gamers from the Stanley Cup-winning roster, tied it in the second interval when Michael Amadio made a crossing move to Howden, who poked the puck into the open left facet of the web behind Oettinger.

The solely coach aside from DeBoer to win eight Game 7s is Darryl Sutter, who was 8-3 in such video games over 182 playoff video games in 15 postseasons with 4 groups.

The Knights are 2-2 in Game 7s. DeBoer was additionally the opposing coach in their different loss, to San Jose in 2019.

It was solely the second time of 16 that the Stars received a best-of-seven sequence after dropping the primary two video games. The different was the very first playoff sequence in franchise historical past, when the Minnesota North Stars have been down 0-2 earlier than beating the Los Angeles Kings in seven video games to open the 1968 playoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.