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For the second time in as many meetings, the Dallas Stars walked away with a shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Saturday was a 2-1 win for the Stars inside the American Airlines Center which completed the season sweep of the Knights.
“I think there wasn’t a lot of room out there today,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It was kind of a man’s game out there where you’re going to have to win some puck battles on the walls and work really hard to get inside. That’s how we scored our goal.”
By getting the game to overtime, both Dallas and Vegas were rewarded with a point in their respective division standings. For Vegas, it meant the worst they could finish in the standings is second now that the third place Los Angeles Kings mathematically can’t catch the Golden Knights in points.
Vegas now sits with a record of 49-22-9 with 107 points in the Pacific Division. The Knights hold a two-point lead over the Edmonton Oilers with two games remaining in the regular season.
The Golden Knights head home for the regular season home finale as they welcome in the Seattle Kraken for a Pacific Division showdown inside T-Mobile Arena Tuesday night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Seattle and Vegas are currently tied at one apiece in terms of the season series. Tuesday will be the first of back-to-back meetings between Seattle and Vegas with the second of the meetings coming on Thursday night in Seattle, WA.
Saturday was a duel between both goaltenders when it came to making saves to keep their respective teams in the game. Dallas goaltender Jake Ottinger made the game-winning save on the goal line of a shootout to secure the narrow win. He finished the game with 19 saves on 20 shots faced for a final save percentage of .950. Ottinger was named the first star of the game.
Ottinger’s opposition, Jonathan Quick, finished the game with 24 saves on 25 shots faced for a final save percentage of .960. He was named the second star of the game. Scoring the go-ahead goal past Quick in the shootout was center Roope Hintz.
Center Brett Howden scored the lone goal of the afternoon for Vegas when he scored with just over five minutes left to play in the first period.
“I think all these games lately have had the playoff feel to them,” Howden said. “Obviously for us, they’re important points. Coming down to the end here, we want to shape our game to be ready for the first game of the playoffs.”
This was Howden’s second goal in the last five games and his sixth goal of the season.
Assisting on Howden’s goal was defenseman Ben Hutton who picked up his fifth assist of the season. Right-winger Keegan Kolesar was also credited with an assist on Howden’s goal, giving him ten assists this season.
“We had some chances, they had some chances,” Hutton said. “Quickie [Jonathan Quick] made some big saves. It could have gone either way tonight.”
Hutton also picked up his fifth point in the last six games with his assist.
The only other scoring in regulation came with seven minutes to go in the second period when left-winger Joel Kiviranta scored for the home team to tie the game up at one. It marked Kiviranta’s eighth goal of the season.