Noah Hanifin breaks late tie, Vegas Golden Knights beat Dallas Stars to force Game 7

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Starting with Tyler Seguin on a breakaway, the photographs got here in waves at Vegas goalie Adin Hill.

He stopped Seguin at level clean, saved Evgenii Dadonov’s rebound after which stopped Seguin once more.

This was the Hill of final yr’s Stanley Cup championship run, and due to him the Golden Knights saved alive their hopes of repeating by beating the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Friday night time to drive a Sport 7.

“You have to make huge saves at huge instances in huge video games,” Hill mentioned. “That is the way you win playoff video games. I feel our staff realized that final yr, and any staff that is received, their goalies needed to catch fireplace at instances.”

The deciding recreation within the first-round sequence is Sunday in Dallas.

Hill stopped 23 photographs for first shutout since having two in three video games in early November. Noah Hanifin broke a scoreless tie at 9:54 of the third interval and Mark Stone scored an empty-netter from 176 toes away with 18.9 seconds left to seal the victory.

This was the second profitable aim this sequence for Hanifin, who was a trade-deadline acquisition from Calgary.

“Ever since I received traded right here, I used to be tremendous excited in regards to the alternative coming to a staff with guys which have received,” Hanifin mentioned. “It is an important tradition right here and I am lucky to be part of it. I be ok with my recreation and I am making an attempt to contribute whichever method I can.”

This was a basic goalie duel, with Hill wanting just like the participant who went 11-4 with a .932 save proportion and a couple of.17 targets targets allowed per recreation in final yr’s playoffs. However Hill had been up and down late on this season, and Logan Thompson received the beginning job within the sequence’ first 4 video games.

The Knights turned to Hill for Sport 5 of their 3-2 loss after which once more for this one.

“On the finish of the yr, Adin was feeling fairly good about this recreation,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy mentioned. “You could possibly see it in apply. It was simply pucks have been discovering their method in. … He ought to trust. He simply pitched a shutout and made some actually high-end saves.”

On the opposite aspect, Jake Oettinger made 28 saves and entered the sport with out giving up a aim on this sequence within the third interval or time beyond regulation. Hanifin’s aim ended Oettinger’s streak at 60 saves.

“I might’ve wish to have shut it down tonight, however now that we’re on this place, that is why we performed so effectively through the common season to get Sport 7 at dwelling if it involves that,” Oettinger mentioned. “The ball’s in our court docket. We’re on dwelling ice, and now it is on us to care for enterprise.”

There are numbers that favor both aspect going into Sport 7.

Vegas took a 2-0 lead on this sequence, and the Knights are 4-0 when holding such a bonus. The Stars have by no means overcome such a deficit within the 9 earlier tries since transferring to Dallas. NHL groups general are 351-55 when provided that early lead.

However no staff has been capable of clear up Stars coach Pete DeBoer in a seventh recreation. He’s 7-0.

“There’s nothing higher than Sport 7s,” DeBoer mentioned. “That is what you grew up dreaming about taking part in and the second-best factor is teaching in them.”

This recreation had electrical energy from the start, each groups lacking main scoring alternatives with the stress constructing as the sport progressed. The Golden Knights added some star touches with recording artist Shania Twain cranking the horn earlier than the sport and James Holzhauer of Jeopardy fame doing it earlier than the third.

The Golden Knights, as anticipated given the circumstances, got here out flying, dwelling within the Stars’ offensive zone early on. Dallas did not get its first shot on aim till 7:45 into the sport, however the Knights did not money in on a number of probabilities, together with a point-blank alternative by Nicolas Roy and a shot from Keegan Kolesar that went off the submit to maintain the sport scoreless within the first interval.

The sport remained that method via the second interval, but it surely wasn’t for a scarcity of motion. Along with Hill’s three spectacular saves throughout that one sequence, he later obtained an help from Stone, who cleared the puck from the aim line. Logan Stankoven missed an open web for the Stars, and Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault had a shot from the left circle that William Karlsson tipped that precipitated the gang to consider the puck went into the web.

Hanifin lastly broke via, along with his unassisted wrister from the correct circle.

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This story has been corrected to point out that Evgenii Dadonov’s rebound was blocked in a flurry of photographs, not Joe Pavelski’s.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl