LAS VEGAS — It hurts. Clearly. The Dallas Stars were protecting a one-goal lead late in the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights were pushing desperately, goalie pulled. Roope Hintz, the Stars No. 1 center, blocked a slap shot by Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin with 1:40 left.
Soon afterward, Hintz was rewarded. The puck bounced to him inside the Dallas blue line, and he fired it 120 feet into an empty net with 1:22 to go. As his teammates gave him pats on the back, he grimaced in pain.
Dallas won 4-2 in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at T-Mobile Arena on Monday, tying the best-of-7 series 2-2.
“It’s plays like that,” goalie Jake Oettinger said, “that separate winning a championship and going home.”
After the first two games of this series, it looked like the Stars might be going home early. They lost 4-3 in Game 1 and 3-1 in Game 2 in Dallas.
Last season, they fell behind the Golden Knights 3-0 in the conference final, lost the series in six and watched them go on to win the Stanley Cup. In the regular season, they lost all three meetings against them (0-1- 2).
But this is a team that won the Western Conference and finished one point behind the New York Rangers for the best record in the NHL. This is a team that had the best road record in the League (.695 points percentage). This is a team with championship aspirations.
The Stars were resilient in Games 3 and 4 overall and within each game.
In Game 3, they dominated the first 30 minutes and took a 2-0 lead, only to watch the Golden Knights tie it 2-2. In overtime, they were one shot from another 3-0 hole against the Golden Knights, but center Wyatt Johnston gave them a 3-2 win.
In Game 4, they fell behind 1-0 and 2-1. But they kept coming back, and when they took a 3-2 lead into the third period, they locked it down.
Game 5 is at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN).
“It’s not over unless you give up, and no one in here has given up, and now we’re right back in this series,” Oettinger said. “I just couldn’t be more proud of the way the guys played, and just the decisions and the little plays that separate this time of year, and just the way that Pete (DeBoer) was preaching playing the right way. It was a great message, and guys took it and played the right way and got rewarded.”
