Golden Knights vs. Stars playoff preview

The third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs features four teams in two best-of-7 series, which start Sunday with Game 1 of the Western Conference Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final.

No. 1 Vegas Golden Knights vs. No. 3 Dallas Stars

Golden Knights: 4-3 to win Western Conference Second Round against No. 5 Vancouver Canucks; 4-1 to win first round against No. 8 Chicago Blackhawks; 3-0-0 in Qualifiers round-robin; 39-28-4, .606 points percentage in regular season
Stars: 4-3 to win second round against No. 2 Colorado Avalanche; 4-2 to win first round against No. 6 Calgary Flames; 1-2-0 in Qualifiers round-robin; 37-24-8, .594 points percentage in regular season
Season series: VGK 1-1-0; DAL 1-0-1
Game 1 is Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS)
The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Western Conference Final for the second time in their three seasons and are looking to win the Stanley Cup for the first time. To do so, they will have to get past the Dallas Stars, who are in the conference final for the first time since 2008, when they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games.
Vegas and Dallas have never met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and each is coming off a victory in Game 7 of the second round Friday.
The Golden Knights defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 to advance, needing a win in the deciding game after leading the best-of-7 series 3-1. They eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks in five games in the first round.
"They're big, they're heavy, they're experienced, they're fast," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. "This is a whole new challenge for us. ... I know they're the favorites, based on the regular season, based on the round-robin, as they should be. That's fine. We've been the underdog in the other two series as well.
"The challenge is that this is very a deep team and this is a very experienced heavy team, and they're going to come at us and we understand that. ... It's going to be which team can forecheck the best, which team can hem the other team in their own zone. Spend as little time in your zone as possible."
The Stars also had to win in Game 7 of the second round after taking a 3-1 series lead against the Colorado Avalanche. They won 5-4 in overtime of the deciding game on the third goal of the game by rookie forward Joel Kiviranta. Dallas trailed by a goal at three different times during the game.
It was redemption for the Stars, who lost Game 7 of the second round last season, 2-1 in the second overtime to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.
"When you looked at Dallas during the season, you kind of scratched your head why they weren't creating offense with the personnel they had," Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. "It didn't make a lot of sense. The fact they've put that piece together here, since we've come back, that's not a surprise to me. They've got a lot of skill back both on the back end and up front. Real good power play. They're firing on all cylinders. It's going to be a great test."
Dallas, which defeated the Calgary Flames in six games in the first round, now sets its sights on Vegas, which earned the top seed in the Western Conference after going 3-0-0 in the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
The Stars are the No. 3 seed after going 1-2-0 in the round-robin. They lost 5-3 to the Golden Knights in the first game of the round-robin Aug. 3.
RELATED: [Complete Golden Knights vs. Stars series coverage]

Game breakers

Golden Knights: Shea Theodore has scored 16 points (six goals, 10 points) in 15 games and leads Vegas in postseason scoring. The defenseman scored with a Bobby Orr-like move in Game 5 against the Canucks, weaving through three defenders and going top shelf, and broke goalie Thatcher Demko's 98-save streak in Game 7 to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 13:52 of the third period. No wonder forward Mark Stone has hyped him as worthy of the Norris Trophy, awarded to the defenseman voted as best in the NHL.
Stars: Miro Heiskanen has scored 21 points (five goals, 16 assists) in 16 games, the most by a defenseman in a single postseason in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history. The 21-year-old has two more points than any defenseman had in the 2019 playoffs, when St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo led the NHL with 19 points (three goals, 16 assists) in 26 games. Heiskanen scored 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in 13 games in the first and second rounds, including 13 (three goals, 10 assists) in an active eight-game point streak tied with Dennis Maruk, Tony McKegney, Neal Broten and Mike Modano for the longest in the playoffs in Dallas/Minnesota history.

Goaltending

Golden Knights: DeBoer stuck with Robin Lehner instead of starting Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 7 against the Canucks, even after Lehner lost consecutive games, including Game 6 the night before. The reward was a 14-save shutout that included a spectacular glove save on Canucks forward Brock Boeser when the score was 0-0. Lehner is 8-4-0 with a 1.99 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in the postseason. He also has three shutouts, all against Vancouver.
Stars: Dallas has been riding Anton Khudobin in the postseason, and he has delivered with an 8-5-0 record, a 2.94 GAA and a .909 save percentage. Khudobin started six of seven games against the Avalanche, with a brief rest to allow Ben Bishop to start Game 5, the second of a back-to-back. Bishop allowed four goals on 19 shots in 13:43 during his start and was replaced by Khudobin. It's not yet known if Bishop, who has been unfit to play in 10 of the past 11 games, will be an option for the Stars in Game 1.

Numbers to know

Golden Knights: Vegas has had 60.5 percent of the shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the postseason; Dallas is 16th among the 24 teams that qualified for the postseason at 48.9 percent. The Golden Knights lead the postseason in shots on goal at 5-on-5 (436) and in all situations (557), and they are first in fewest shots-against per game (24.7).
Stars: Dallas defensemen have scored 45 points (11 goals, 34 assists) in the postseason; Vegas defensemen have scored 38 (11 goals, 27 assists). It is the most points by Stars defensemen in the postseason since 1999, when they scored 46 (seven goals, 39 assists) on the way to the Stanley Cup.

X-factors

Golden Knights: Vegas' biggest advantage is depth, and the third line of Nick Cousins, Nicolas Roy and Alex Tuch causes matchup problems, particularly Tuch because of his combination of size (6-foot-4, 220 pounds), skill and speed. The forward leads the Golden Knights in the postseason with eight goals and is fourth with 10 points. "The teams that are still playing this time of year have those luxuries," DeBoer said. "That depth is the reason that teams are still around."
Stars: Denis Gurianov leads NHL rookie forwards with 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 16 games in the postseason. The 23-year-old has scored at least one point in six straight games (two goals, six assists) and in nine of 13 games through the first two rounds. He scored four goals in Dallas' 7-3 series-winning victory in Game 6 of the first round against Calgary.

They said it

"We're just a resilient team. We work hard, and when we work hard, I think we're a successful team. Obviously, we have a lot of skill, a lot of great players in that team, but at the end of the day, every night it's going to be the hardworking team that is going to win." -- Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault
"We've been here for 40-something days, but before we got here, you come to training camp in September, you go through a lot as a team. But since we've been here, all we have is each other. It's been a lot of fun. We have a lot going on in our player lounge. You can always find something to do there. Happy to be staying here a little longer." -- Stars captain Jamie Benn

Will win if …

Golden Knights: They continue to use their depth and forecheck to their advantage, and their offense comes back alive. The best way to limit the Stars offensively, especially Heiskanen, is to keep them in their own zone and force them to defend. Before they ran into Demko, Vegas was averaging 3.75 goals per game in the postseason.
Stars: They continue to get production from their defense, and their top forwards, Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov, find consistent production. Dallas has been scoring more in the playoffs (3.31 goals per game) than it did in the regular season (2.58), largely because of its active defensemen. The top line produced early in the series against the Avalanche, scoring 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in the first four games, before fading in Games 5 and 6 with one point, a goal by Benn, between them, a reason the Stars lost each game. Radulov scored two goals, and Benn had an assist in Game 7.

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 -- Ryan Reaves
Alec Martinez -- Shea Theodore
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Nick Holden -- Zach Whitecloud
Robin Lehner
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched:Dylan Coghlan, Oscar Dansk, Reid Duke, Deryk Engelland, Nicolas Hague , Keegan Kolesar , Peyton Krebs, Jon Merrill, Gage Quinney , Patrick Brown
Unfit to play: Tomas Nosek

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: Nick Caamano, Jason Robertson, Justin Dowling, Gavin Bayreuther, Thomas Harley, Ty Dellandrea, Landon Bow
Unfit to play: Ben Bishop, Stephen Johns, Andrew Cogliano, Taylor Fedun
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen and NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report