3 Keys: Stars vs. Golden Knights, Game 1 of Western Conference Final

No. 3 Stars vs. No. 1 Golden Knights
8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS

The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars will play Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Sunday.
The Golden Knights, who defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 in Game 7 of the second round, are seeking their second trip to the Stanley Cup Final in three seasons (2018).
The Stars advanced with a 5-4 overtime win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7. They last made the Cup Final in 2000.
"We've got to want more," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We can't be satisfied with the fact that we got by the second round. We didn't come here to get by the second round. We came here to win the Stanley Cup."
The team that wins Game 1 is 488-221 (68.8 percent), including 10-2 in the first two rounds, winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Here are 3 keys for Game 1:

1. Starting on time

How will the Stars and Golden Knights fare after coming off a seven-game series that ended two days ago? The teams got to this point in different ways: Dallas allowed 13 goals in its four wins against Colorado. Vegas shut out Vancouver three times.
"For us, [the quick turnaround] doesn't matter," Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. "You get two days off here in the bubble and you start looking at yourself a little differently. There's not a ton to do besides play hockey, so we're happy to be playing."

2. Stars power play vs. Golden Knights penalty kill

Dallas has the best power-play among the four teams remaining in the playoffs (28.3 percent) and scored nine power-play goals against Colorado. Vegas has the best penalty kill among remaining teams (87.8 percent) and allowed three man-advantage goals on 27 chances against Vancouver.
"Obviously they've got a high-powered offense, they capitalize on the power play," Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez said. "It's going to be a tough test for us. A lot of these games come down to special teams and it's obviously going to be a huge part of this series."

3. Offense from defense

Stars defensemen have scored 45 points (11 goals, 34 assists) this postseason, including almost half that total from Miro Heiskanen, who leads the NHL at the position with 21 points (five goals, 16 assists) in 16 games. Golden Knights defensemen have scored 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists), led by Shea Theodore (16 points; six goals, 10 assists).
"Like Shea Theodore, like Quinn Hughes, he's elite," Vegas coach Pete DeBoer said of Heiskanen, who's averaging a Stars-best 25:54 of ice time per game. "Knowing when he's on the ice because he is so dangerous and is on the ice so much that you can't just have one line prepare to play against him. Everybody's got to be prepared to play against him because he's out there 30 minutes a night."

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Denis Gurianov
Joel Kiviranta -- Roope Hintz -- Corey Perry
Jason Dickinson -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera --
Joel Hanley
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Scratched:Gavin Bayreuther, Landon Bow, Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Justin Dowling, Thomas Harley, Jason Robertson
Unfit to play: Ben Bishop, Andrew Cogliano, Taylor Fedun Stephen Johns

Golden Knights projected lineup

Max Pacioretty -- William Karlsson -- Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault -- Paul Stastny -- Reilly Smith
Nick Cousins -- Nicolas Roy -- Alex Tuch
William Carrier -- Chandler Stephenson -- Tomas Nosek
Alec Martinez -- Shea Theodore
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Nick Holden -- Zach Whitecloud
Robin Lehner
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched:Patrick Brown, Dylan Coghlan, Oscar Dansk, Reid Duke, Deryk Engelland, Nicolas Hague, Keegan Kolesar, Peyton Krebs, Jon Merrill, Gage Quinney
Unfit to play:None
Suspended:Ryan Reaves
Status report:With Reaves suspended one game for an illegal check to the head of Canucks forward Tyler Motte in Game 7, Cousins will likely play. He was scratched for Game 7 against Vancouver after playing the first six games of the series. … Bowness said Cogliano and Janmark would each be a game-time decision.