Thursday night the Dallas Stars and the Vegas Golden Knights face each other for the third time in the Western Conference Finals. In the first two games, both teams managed to book a shutout win. Will we get a more productive game tonight, in which both teams will find the net?
Dallas Stars: seeking offense
The Dallas Stars caused an upset in the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs by eliminating the Colorado Avalanche in 7 games. The Avs were battered at the end of the series by the absence of goalies Philip Grubauer, Pavel Francouz and attacker Gabriel Landeskog, among others, but credits may also be given to Dallas. The team was not able to reach the Western Conference Finals because of their well-known strong defensive game, but due to the fact that they turned out to be enormously productive in front of the goal.
The Stars had a strong goalie tandem in the regular season with Anton Khudobin and Ben Bishop. The latter got injured in the fifth game against the Colorado Avalanche and this puts some pressure on Khudobin.Coach Rick Bowness will in this important phase of the season prefer not to call on the young backup goalie Jake Oettinger again, who until last Tuesday had no experience in the NHL.
the Stars are left on the hunt for some offensive touch. Dallas, which scored 42 goals in a 10-game stretches just one in two clashes to start this round. The Stars have gone 117 minutes and 24 seconds without lighting the lamp, and look much like the regular season club that struggled to score.
Vegas Golden Knights: bounced back with a shutout win
When the Vegas Golden Knights entered the NHL in their inaugural season, 2017-2018, it soon became clear that Marc-André Fleury would become one of the key players. The goalie started in all 27 playoff games the Golden Knights played before this season, but he has been relegated to the backup spot, since Robin Lehner joined Vegas at the trade deadline in February. So far it has mainly been a luxury problem for head coach Peter DeBoer.
Lehner more than lives up to DeBoer's trust as first choice for the time being. The goalie won twelve of the sixteen games he played as a starter, has a save percentage of .952 and has a goals-against average of 1.84 goals. In addition, he has already scored four shutouts for the Knights during the postseason. The Swede is free agent next year, but rumors are that Vegas is planning to signing him to a long-term extension.
With Fleury in net, the Golden Knights lost the first game of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars last weekend, but the experienced goalie was Vegas' best player. The Knights knew they had to perform in the second game of their series on Tuesday and they did so with conviction. Thanks to goals in second period from Paul Statsny, William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek, Vegas booked a 3-0 shutout win.
Vegas Golden Knights in regulation
Robin Lehner stopped all 24 shots he faced last Tuesday for his fourth shutout during the postseason. It's more than likely that head coach Peter DeBoer will again choose the Swede as his starting goalie in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. The Stars were able to create plenty of chances in the previous round against Colorado and did so in the first game against the Vegas Golden Knights, yet Dallas only managed to score once in the two games they played against the Knights. I expect that goals will be scarce in the third game as well and the Golden Knights will take a 2-1 lead in this series thanks to another strong performance from Lehner.
