Golden Knights lament effort level after failing to sweep Western Final

DALLAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights lost to a desperate team that had its best players show up to make sure the season didn't end in front of a hometown crowd.

Sometimes it can be as simple as that. Sometimes that's all it takes to lose.

"There's always things we'll look at, our breakout executions and support, getting to our areas, but they're a good team too," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "They have good players. Their top players finished plays for them. When that happens, good things happen for your team."

It did for the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final on Thursday.

Jason Robertson scored two game-tying goals in regulation, one on the power play and one at 5-on-5, and the Stars got a power-play goal from Joe Pavelski 3:18 into overtime to secure a 3-2 win at American Airlines Center

The Golden Knights lead the best-of-7 series, 3-1. Game 5 is at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"I thought they were way better today," Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. "We're trying to play the right way, but their desperation was a little higher than ours. At this time of the year, it's not about X's and O's, it's about who wants it more and I thought they wanted it more than us tonight."

That shouldn't be surprising. The Golden Knights were up 3-0 in the series; The Stars had their season on the line. If they weren't desperate and pushing and throwing everything they had at the Golden Knights, it would have been both shocking and disappointing from their side.

Vegas expected it even with Dallas missing forwards Jamie Benn (suspended two games) and Evgenii Dadonov (upper body).

It's not that the Golden Knights handled it poorly, but they could have handled the Stars' desperation better than they did.

"Our effort level, I think it was not good enough," Marchessault said. "Closing a series, it's probably the hardest game of the series, right. So, it's just not good enough for our group."

RELATED: [Complete Golden Knights vs. Stars series coverage]

Vegas mostly lamented the first two periods because even though it was 2-2, it was clear the Stars were the better team on the ice through 40 minutes.

They had a 30-23 advantage in shots on goal and 53-37 edge in total shot attempts. They won 56.7 percent of the face-offs (21 of 38), including 72.2 percent in the first period (13 of 18).

"I thought our breakout was not good enough," Marchessault said.

Cassidy agreed.

"That's on us," he said. "We weren't fast early on. I don't think we managed pucks well below the goal line. Now by the time you get it out you're tired. You're changing and you're not in your structure when they're coming through there."

It afforded Dallas more space in the middle of the ice than it had in the first three games. It was able to generate some chances off the rush.

"They were better than us," Cassidy said. "They won more puck battles. If you look at the face-offs, they were heavily tilted toward them. That's your first competing act on the shift is the face-off. We weren't there, but we got there in the third period. I thought that was the one period we outplayed them and both goalies were good, made some saves."

The Golden Knights put 14 shots on Stars goalie Jake Oettinger in the third period. He stopped them all.

Vegas goalie Adin Hill stopped all eight he faced in the third, including a sublime left pad save on Fredrik Olofsson with 1:58 remaining.

Hill was on all night. He made 39 saves.

"He was excellent," Cassidy said. "Can't fault him on any of the goals."

Robertson scored on the power play at 15:42 of the first period, when he batted the puck out of Hill's glove and then whacked it into the net like a baseball player.

He scored again at 17:21 of the second period, when a shot off the end boards came to him on the right side and he backhanded it into the net.

Pavelski's goal was a one-timer after Hill lost his stick.

"I thought 'Hillsy' made unbelievable saves all along the game and it's not fair," Marchessault said. "He's been so good for us, it's not fair to let him down like that in that situation. We learn from it. Tomorrow is a new day. We wake up and get ready for Game 5."

That comes Saturday, when the Golden Knights will be on their home ice and, if they handle their first loss in six games the right way, they'll have some desperation too to end this series and punch their ticket into the Stanley Cup Final.

The Florida Panthers are waiting.

"We've got to want it more," Marchessault said.