Logan Thompson made 27 saves in his NHL playoff debut as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights began their Stanley Cup title defense with a 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday night in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series.
Brayden McNabb scored what proved to be the winning goal, putting home a slap shot just 1:06 into the second period to give Vegas a 4-2 lead.
Mason Marchment halved Dallas’ deficit at 11:46 of the third, but the Stars never found a way to draw even.
Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault and Tomas Hertl also scored and Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin each added two assists for the Golden Knights, who had never won Game 1 of a playoff series when playing on the road.
Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson also scored for Dallas, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Jake Oettinger finished with 11 saves and had an assist.
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Dallas.
Stone, playing for the first time since Feb. 20 after recovering from a lacerated spleen, gave Vegas a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal just 83 seconds into the first period. It was Stone’s 35th career playoff marker.
“I was actually pretty nervous before the game,” Stone said. “Haven’t played hockey in a while, but once you get in the flow of things, you remember why you do it. That was awesome. Rest (Tuesday) and get ready for Wednesday. We’ve got to bring our A-game because they’re going to be coming.”
The Golden Knights increased their lead to 2-0 when Marchessault snapped an Ivan Barbashev pass inside the far post at 8:27 of the first. Marchessault has registered at least one point in 11 straight postseason games.
Benn cut Vegas’ lead to 2-1 with a breakaway goal at 16:07 of the first.
Hertl put the Golden Knights back up by two goals at the 17:51 mark with a power-play tally, backhanding a shot past Oettinger. However, Robertson answered just 38 seconds later to make it 3-2.
McNabb had the only goal of the second. He last scored in the playoffs back in 2021, finding the back of the net in Game 4 of a semifinal series against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Stars pulled Oettinger for an extra attacker with 2:30 remaining, but Dallas was unable to get to Thompson, who stopped a snap shot by Benn with eight seconds left.
Stars coach Peter DeBoer said postgame, “I thought if you’re going to knock off the Stanley Cup champion, you’re going to have to bring your A-game every night. I just thought tonight we did some decent things, we did some things well, but we were chasing the game the whole night from the first shot of the game on. Tough to play from behind against that team.”
–Field Level Media
