Stars put defending champion Golden Knights on brink

DALLAS (AP) — Jason Robertson scored a power-play goal to put Dallas ahead late in the second period after Tyler Seguin took a shot to the face and the Stars beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, becoming the first home team to win in this opening-round series that they now lead.

Evgenii Dadonov and Matt Duchene also scored for the Stars, who have won three in a row after dropping the first two games at home last week as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

Seguin was down on the ice and a bit dazed after Alex Pietrangelo took a big backhanded swing and connected to the face of the Stars forward when they were together against the boards. The play was initially called a five-minute major, but changed to a minor penalty after replay review.

Still, it was a major hit against the Knights since Robertson scored on their first shot with an advantage. His third goal of this series came after he got his own ricochet and knocked the puck through traffic in front of the net and past Adin Hill, the goalie starting his first game for the Knights this series.

Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 25 shots, including a nearly full-split save to deny Chandler Stephenson on a charge with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the game.

Hill had 22 saves after Logan Thompson had started the first four games.

Mark Stone and William Carrier scored the goals for Vegas.

Game 6 is Friday night in Las Vegas, where the Stars won twice — 3-2 in overtime in Game 3, then 4-2 in Game 4. Wyatt Johnston, who had two assists in the return home, scored three goals on the road, including the OT winner in Game 3.

Reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas never trailed the Stars in the Western Conference Final last year, winning the first three games before wrapping up the series in six games.

Duchene scored on a power play for a 2-1 Dallas lead after a tripping penalty against Carrier. Seguin had a shot off the upper body of Hill, before Johnston got a stick on the puck that then pinged off a Vegas defender and was stuffed in by Duchene.

Knights captain Stone, playing his 73th playoff game for Vegas and his 100th overall in his career, put them up 1-0 with a power-play goal four minutes into the game. He redirected Noah Hanifin's shot, sending the puck between Tomas Hertl and Stars defenseman Esa Lindell who were in front of Oettinger.

Their lead lasted only only about a minute before Dadonov scored on a pass from rookie Logan Stankoven, who did some nifty stick work to push the puck ahead of defenseman Brayden McNabb sliding feet-first on the ice after falling down.

The Knights did get back even at 2-2 on Carrier's goal when he withstood a hit from Lindell against the boards behind the net but kept possession of the puck and then stuffed it around the post to Oettinger's right. They came inches from taking the lead after that when Brett Howden had a shot across the front of the goalie that ricocheted off the top of the other post.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl