Stars win Game 3 in OT, cut Golden Knights’ lead in West 1st Round

LAS VEGAS -- Wyatt Johnston scored his second goal of the game with 3:37 remaining in overtime, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Johnston skated below the right circle on the rush and roofed in a shot over Vegas goalie Logan Thompson’s left shoulder.

“I tried a couple low [shots] and it didn’t work, so I figured I’d throw one up high,” Johnston said. “Luckily enough, it worked.”

Vegas leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be at Vegas on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, BSSW, ESPN, SN, TVAS).

Miro Heiskanen had a goal and an assist, and Jake Oettinger made 32 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division.

Dallas recovered after blowing a 2-0 lead in the second period.

“I loved the first period. I think we did some really good things,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "Executed at a high, high level and had great desperation to our game. Our game’s building, you know, Game 2 was better than Game 1. Game 3 was better than Game 2. So that's a great sign for me on our group.”

Thompson made 43 saves, and Brayden McNabb had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights, who are the second wild card from the West.

“They took it to us,” McNabb said. “We had no business being in that game. ‘LT’ stood on his head and saved us and allowed us a chance. We'll learn from it and have a better start in Game 4.”

Johnston gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 11:11 of the first period with his first goal, a backhand through Thompson's five-hole.

“We've taken a lot of pride in the different ages we have on our team. The different times of the careers we have,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “Seeing [Johnston] last year, and then how much he's evolved to this year, and then, it's one thing being elite in the regular season but to do it in playoffs, at [20 years old], that's great.”

Heiskanen extended it to 2-0 at 5:25 of the second on a wrist shot from the left circle on the rush.

McNabb cut it to 2-1 at 10:40 with a wrist shot from behind the right circle after Chandler Stephenson won the face-off draw.

“We dug ourselves a hole that we were able to climb ourselves out of, but I do use a lot of energy to get out of there,” Vegas captain Mark Stone said. “Goalie, obviously, kept us in the game for the first 35 minutes, until we got the 2-1 goal. We’re playing a good team, hard to beat the best team in our conference three games in a row.

“So, regroup, we're off, make a few changes. But for the majority of the game, it was just the start that kind of cost us.”

Jack Eichel tied it 2-2 with a short-handed goal at 13:50 on a 2-on-1.

“They had a level of urgency that we weren't able to match. Sometimes that happens,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “At some point you've got to get to your game. It just took us too long. Now, having said that, we weather it because of Logan.

“He gave us every chance to get back in the game, and we did so once it was 2-2, then it was a little bit different, but they executed better than we did. You see it in overtime. They had more jump, more urgency. We didn't have that level we needed tonight to win a playoff hockey game.”

NOTES: Johnston (20 years, 349 days) became the youngest player in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to score an overtime goal in the playoffs, surpassing the mark set by Steve Ott (21 years, 237 days) in Game 3 of the 2004 Western Conference Quarterfinals. … Thompson tied Marc-Andre Fleury (Game 7 of the 2019 first round; Game 2 of the 2018 second round) for the most saves by a Golden Knights goaltender in a playoff game.