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SportsPulse, USA TODAY
The Dallas Stars said they were motivated to make sure captain Jamie Benn’s cross-check wasn’t the last thing he did this season.
The Stars are halfway there after staying alive at home with a 3-2 overtime victory on Thursday night in Game 4. The Vegas Golden Knights, up 3-1 in the Western Conference final, get another chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday at home when Benn serves the final game of his two-game suspension.
The Golden Knights won both of their earlier home games of this series in overtime. The Florida Panthers, who swept the Carolina Hurricanes, await the winner.
The Stars, also missing injured forward Evgenii Dadonov, needed their best players to step up extend the series and they got big performances. Jason Robertson scored two goals in regulation and Joe Pavelski, 38, scored on a power play at 3:18 of overtime after Vegas’ Brayden McNabb was called for high-sticking.
It was Pavelski’s ninth goal of the playoffs and his first of the series.
Benn was ejected less than two minutes in Game 3 when he cross-checked Golden Knights captain Mark Stone in the face/neck area while he was on the ice. The NHL player safety department called it a “unnecessarily dangerous” play.
Jason Robertson scores twice for Stars
Robertson, who had a career-best 46 goals in the regular season. tied the game twice, matching goals by Vegas’ William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault.
His first goal was a thing of beauty.
Robertson showed off his hand-eye coordination on the power play after he tipped a point shot. Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill couldn’t control the rebound and Robertson hit the puck to himself and swatted it out of the air into the net.
He finished the game with two goals and 11 shots in 19:25 of ice time. He also slid and blocked a shot by Vegas’ Reilly Smith with 19 seconds left in regulation.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger rebounds
Among the many things that went wrong for the Stars in Game 3, Oettinger was pulled after giving up three goals on five shots. But once again, he showed his resilience, making 37 saves in Game 4. He has been pulled three times this postseason and won all three of the following games. He improved to 6-2 in these playoffs after a loss.
Stanley Cup Final starting dates announced
The NHL announced its scenarios for the start of the Stanley Cup Final.
If the Golden Knights win on Saturday, the championship series will start in Las Vegas on May 31. If the series goes six or seven games, the series will begin on June 3. The lower-seeded Panthers will start on the road regardless of the opponent.
