Golden Knights score 6, cruise past Stars

DALLAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights scored three goals in the first period and extended their point streak to seven games with a 6-1 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

“Sometimes you get fortunate in the schedule, let’s face it,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That was their fourth game this week, they were on the road in Florida and come back home. We had actually had a couple of days off, good practice yesterday. We wanted to get the right start and we did. We checked well not to allow them to get back into the game and we started well by scoring early and getting an early lead. I thought those were the two biggest reasons why we were able to get two points.”

Mark Stone, Zach Whitecloud, Nicolas Roy and Paul Cotter each had a goal and an assist for Vegas (18-5-5), which is 4-0-3 during its streak. Logan Thompson made 19 saves.

Evgenii Dadonov scored, and Jake Oettinger made 20 saves for Dallas (15-8-3), which has lost three of four.

“We’re in here, went through our meetings, beginning of [the] game it felt like everyone was ready,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “Then, we go and do that. To a guy, it wasn’t good enough, wasn’t anywhere near it. Time to regroup a little bit.”

Chandler Stephenson gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 2:24 of the first with a backhand from the slot, ending a 20-game goal drought.

He said it helped having the Vegas players’ fathers on hand as part of their annual road trip.

“Having the dads here gives you a little bit of an extra jump,” Stephenson said. “Everyone wants to play good with their dad in the building, don’t want to get yelled at after. We’ve been feeling good about our game as of late and just trying to take that into every game. It’s been a while since I scored, so it’s nice to see that I can still put it in. That one felt good.” 

Whitecloud made it 2-0 on the rush at 5:36 when his wrist shot from high in the left face-off circle went through Oettinger’s five-hole.

“Today some tough bounces,” Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist said. “A tough game for everyone. We’re just going to learn from it and be ready to play a heck of a game on Monday (against the Detroit Red Wings).”

Dadonov cut it to 2-1 at 10:07, one-timing a rebound from below the left circle.

Stone extended the Vegas lead to 3-1 at 14:58 when he put in his own rebound from the slot.

Roy made it 4-1 at 15:01 of the second period from inside the right circle after Stars forward Radek Faksa turned the puck over at the defensive blue line.

“They’re the Stanley Cup champion,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “They’re a good team. They were more than opportunistic tonight. They created a bunch of stuff. They don’t need a lot of room to create some stuff with some of the guys they have there. But we helped them, too.”

Pavel Dorofeyev pushed it to 5-1 at 2:11 of the third period. He scored into an open net after William Karlsson fed him with a no-look pass from below the goal line.

Cotter made it 6-1 at 9:15 with a backhand glove side after faking Oettinger.

“They’re a good team, they have a lot of stars,” Cotter said. “We’ve pretty much built some bad blood between us, which is a good thing. These are the games you get up, you get excited for. You know these games aren’t going to be easy. The goals that go in are going to be weird little bounces, stuff like that. Coming in we’ve got to be prepared.”

NOTES: Dallas center Roope Hintz was scratched because of an illness. … With an assist on Stone’s goal, Golden Knights center Jack Eichel extended his point streak to six games (11 points; four goals, seven assists). … Vegas swept the three-game season series from Dallas, having won 3-2 in the shootout Oct. 17 at home and 2-1 in overtime Nov. 22 on the road. … Stephenson had last scored Oct. 14 in a 4-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks.