Stone scores in return, Golden Knights hold off Stars in Game 1

DALLAS -- Mark Stone scored in his first game back from a lacerated spleen, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Dallas Stars 4-3 in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Center on Monday.

Stone sustained the injury against the Nashville Predators on Feb. 20 and missed the last 26 games of the regular season.

“I was nervous. I think I would probably be a little nervous, even if I played all 82 games,” Stone said. “It's the playoffs. This is what we can play for, and then once the game gets going, you realize why you're playing. It’s so much fun to be out there.”

Jonathan Marchessault, Tomas Hertl and Brayden McNabb scored, and Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin each had two assists for the Golden Knights, who are the second wild card from the West. Logan Thompson made 27 saves.

“We defended well,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought we played the right way and stuck with it. We know how to do that. We know how to win. We’ve heard all types of comments on the bench, as do they. Good teams this time of the year don’t tend to panic in those situations. We certainly didn’t.”

Jamie Benn, Jason Robertson and Mason Marchment scored for the Stars, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division. Jake Oettinger made 11 saves.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be in Dallas on Wednesday.

“We didn't give them much, you know?” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “A tight-checking game. I mean, you get to two teams that have played pretty tight. So, that's what it's going to look like, I think. You can't chase the game the whole series. I thought tonight we were chasing the game all night. So, we've got to make sure we fix that going forward.”

Stone put the Golden Knights up 1-0 at 1:23 of the first period when he redirected a shot from Hanifin on the power play.

“That was a big goal for us,” Stone said. “You got to get off to a good start on the road. That’s key.”

Marchessault extended it to 2-0 at 8:27, scoring five-hole on Oettinger.

Benn cut it to 2-1 at 16:07 on a breakaway after receiving a stretch pass from Wyatt Johnston.

Hertl pushed it to 3-1 at 17:51, tapping the puck into an open net off the rebound of Hanifin’s shot.

“Tomas is very good in there,” Cassidy said. “He’s a big man. So, once he establishes a position, he’s going to be hard to move. He’s got quick hands. He showed that. We’ve talked about that since he’s come to our team. We’ve talked about how he’s a natural, true net presence. He showed that tonight.”

Robertson scored 38 seconds later on a wrist shot from the left circle to make it 3-2.

McNabb extended it to 4-2 at 1:06 of the second period when his shot deflected in off Miro Heiskanen.

Marchment cut it to 4-3 at 11:46 of the third period with a shot that went underneath Thompson’s glove.

“We had tons of chances. It easily could have gone our way,” Marchment said. “I definitely felt like we started to get to our game in the second half of the game. … We know we can play 5-on-5 and control them, and let's try to get the lead and go from there.”

NOTES: Stone scored his 30th playoff goal for the Golden Knights, joining Marchessault as the only players to do so for Vegas. … Marchessault has had at least one point in each of the Golden Knights’ past 11 playoff games. Only three active players have recorded a point in more consecutive playoff games: Mikko Rantanen (17 games from 2020-21), Nathan MacKinnon (14 games in 2020) and Auston Matthews (12 games from 2022-23).