The Vegas Golden Knights will face the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals.
Vegas knocked out the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 victory in Game 6 of the second round on Sunday to advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2021. Dallas advanced with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 on Monday. .
The Golden Knights (51-22-9), seeded No. 1 in the Pacific Division, will have home-court advantage against the Stars (47-21-14), seeded No. 2 in the Central Division.
Vegas and Dallas have made the playoffs once before, the 2020 Western Conference Finals, won by the Stars in five games. Dallas hadn’t reached the third round since.
“I think we have to play the way we played [Monday]”The stars ahead Roope Hintz said. “They also have four lines, they play hard, they play a good forecheck, so I think when we play fast and with our strength with four lines, I think we’re good.”
Jack Eichel leads the Golden Knights in the playoffs with 14 points (six goals, eight assists), mark the stone has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) and Chandler Stephenson (six goals, four assists) and Jonathan Marchessault (five goals, five assists) each has 10 points.
Hill of Adin is 3-1 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .934 save percentage, starting the last three games with Laurent Brossoit (5-2, 3.18 GAA, .894 save percentage) injured.
Hintz leads the Stars with nine goals and 19 points, Jason Robertson has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) and Max Domi has 11 points (three goals, eight assists).
Jake Oettinger started all 13 games for Dallas this postseason and is 8-5 with a 2.75 GAA, .903 save percentage and one shutout. Scott Wedgewood appeared in two games and has a 3.41 GAA and .833 save percentage.
The Stars reached the conference finals in Peter DeBoer’s first season as coach. He was fired by the Golden Knights on May 16, 2022, after three seasons.
“There’s a lot to unpack there,” DeBoer said after Monday’s win. “I think we’re just going to enjoy tonight and talk about it as we go along.”
Vegas went 0-1-2 against Dallas this season, losing 4-0 at home on Jan. 16, 3-2 in a home shootout on Feb. 25, and 2-1 in a shootout in Dallas on April 8. . Eichel, Michael Amadio And Brett Howden scored all three goals for the Golden Knights against the Stars in the regular season and nine players each scored a point.
Three different goaltenders have started each game against the Stars. Logan Thompson made 32 saves in the 4-0 loss, Brossoit made 41 saves in the 3-2 shootout loss and Quick Jonathan made 24 saves in the 2-1 shootout loss.
Jamie Benn (one goal, two assists) and Ty Dellandrea (three assists) each had three points against the Golden Knights in the regular season, and Joel Kiviranta scored two goals. Oettinger started all three games, going 3-0-0 with a 0.96 GAA, .967 save percentage and one shutout.
The Golden Knights have advanced to the third round of the playoffs four times in their six NHL seasons. They last qualified for the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, losing to the Washington Capitals in five games in 2018.
NHL.com editor Tracey Myers contributed to this report