The captain Mark Stone made his return after missing two months. But he wasted no time to make his presence felt scoring only 1:23 into the first period. From that point on, the Vegas Golden Knights didn’t look back. In fact they looked good tonight!
Stone, Marchessault, Hertl and McNabball got in on the action as the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights held on for a 4-3 win over the #1 seeded Dallas Star on Monday night at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. “Off to a good start on the road,” Stone said. “That’s key, and the power play was clutch for us.”
“I wouldn’t be more happy for any guy than him,” Marchessault said. “’He’s been going through a lot of adversity the past few years. The fact that he comes back and he gets big goals like that, I mean it’s unbelievable to have a guy like that on your team. Especially as your leader.”
Logan Thompson got the start in net for Vegas, in his postseason debut he stopped 27 shots. Coach Bruce Cassidy decided to give Thompson the nod over Adin Hill, who had two shutouts against the Stars in the Western conference final last year. The two had split starts down the stretch, though Hill had struggled throughout the season with injuries and inconsistent play. Ultimately those factors made it clear for Cassidy to go with Thompson.
Dallas came back and cut the lead down to 4-3 in the 3rd period but they could tie the game up. “If you’re going to knock off the Stanley Cup champions, you’re going to have to bring your A-game every night,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We did some decent things, we did some things well, but we’re chasing the game the whole night from the first shot of the game on. Tough to play from behind against that team.”
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