The Dallas Stars are one loss away from summer vacation.
Jamie Benn’s match ended with a shower after only two minutes played. AOP / USA TODAY SPORTS
The Vegas Golden Knights claimed a knock-out 4-0 victory over the home cave of the Dallas Stars in the third game of the Western Conference finals in the NHL playoffs.
With their victory, the Golden Knights lead the playoff series between the teams with match wins 3–0 and are one win away from the Stanley Cup finals.
Stars had a weak start to the match, while Vegas Jonathan Marchessault took his team to a 1–0 lead.
Moments later, Stars captain Jamie Benn went into overdrive when he hit the frozen Vegas captain Mark Stone with a transverse club for those around the neck. First, Benn knocked Stone to the surface of the ice, after which he decided to hit him with another cross stick.
The jury of the match checked the situation from the video and decided to award the Stars captain a shower command. By the editor of The Athletic Saad Yousuf by Benn refused from giving comments after the match to the media.
Vegas went after this, when Ivan Barbašov and William Carrier scored within a few minutes.
Stars changed goalkeepers after the 0–3 hit, when Jake Oettinger was taken out between the posts.
Changed to finish Scott Wedgewood had to surrender once in the second set when Alex Pietrangelo the shot found its way into the Stars goal.
The second period ended prematurely when Stars’ Home crowd completely lost their nerve. Max Domi was sent to the ice shelf after hitting Vegas with a cross stick Nicolas Hague.
The Stars’ Home Audience did not like the jury’s decision to sentence Dom to punishment for violence, cross stick and behavior, while Hague was suspended for violence and behavior at the same time. The public started throwing food, drink and other items onto the ice.
The jury decided to march both teams to the locker room, even though there were still 21 seconds left in the set.
When Vegas skated to the ice to start the third period, the Dallas Home Audience threw popcorn Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill’s on.
Dallas’ Finnish players Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen played more than 22 minutes. The power statistics of both were two degrees below freezing. Jani Hakanpää on the other hand, returned to the ice after the injury and cooled down the Stars’ back lines for more than 18 minutes.
Joel Kiviranta sweated for 18 minutes and Roope Hintz played for a good 15 minutes.