Dallas Stars forward Wyatt Johnston scored a natural hat trick, including the game-winner 20 seconds into overtime to give the Stars a 4-3 overtime victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev scored with an assist for the Golden Knights (31-15-5), while Mark Stone had two assists. Tomas Hertl also scored, and Adin Hill made 25 saves.
“We’re getting there. There was less of the game tonight where I thought we were poor or that it got away from us, right? So we’re straightening that part out,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, you want to get to the finish line. I didn’t think our third period was poor in terms of letting them come after us over and over. As I said, they made a play and scored on it.”
Golden Knights Start Well
The Golden Knights came out firing early by scoring what seemed to be an early goal 56 seconds into the game by Ivan Barbashev. After an official review, however, Barbashev was ruled offside, taking it off the board.
It didn’t matter too much, though.
Eichel scored less than a minute later to put Vegas up 1-0.
“It’s a good start. The first one was disallowed, but I feel like we just stuck to it. We just kept pushing, and Jack got a huge goal for us,” Barbashev said. “This is something I think we’ve needed for a long time.”
The Golden Knights have scored first in four consecutive games.
Hertl Continues Streak
After Mavrik Bourque tied the game, Hertl scored a goal to extend his point streak to 10 games. It is the second-longest streak in Golden Knights history, trailing on Eichel who scored a point in 12 consecutive games.
During his hot streak, Hertl has 14 points (eight goals, six assists).
“He’s relaxed a bit in play, then things start going well for you, you naturally become more confident, a little more vocal in the room, etc.,” Cassidy said. “So good for him. That’s the player we knew we were getting, and he’s doing a good jo
Not Enough ‘Push’
While Cassidy said the team is getting closer to finding its stride, Stone thought the team didn’t mainly play to its strength in the third period. He mentioned that the team struggled to sustain pressure and find a killer instinct to close out the game.
“We didn’t really push to make it 4-2 as I would have liked,” Stone said. “When you get those 3-2, one-goal leads, you’ve got to keep pushing to try and put teams away, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.
