DALLAS — Monday represents take three for the Golden Knights. They don’t want there to be a fourth.
The Knights get the opportunity to reach their second Stanley Cup Final in six years with a win in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final on Monday against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. They’ve lost two straight for the first time all postseason after taking a 3-0 series lead, forcing them to return to Dallas for the second time.
The Knights don’t want the series to continue with a Game 7 at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday. They know the Stars are gaining confidence the longer play continues, so they want to nip their issues in the bud and punch their ticket for a date with the Florida Panthers.
Dallas can be the 10th team in NHL history to force a Game 7 after trailing 3-0. The Stars are the fifth team to force a Game 6 when behind 3-0 the round before the Stanley Cup Final.
“If you told me a few months ago you would be up 3-2 playing a Game 6 in Dallas, I would’ve taken it anytime,” right wing Jonathan Marchessault said. “We’re still in a good position. We’re going to come out here and play one of our best road games.”
The Stars have played impressive hockey to claw back into the series.
Their offense started to create more scoring chances in Games 4 and 5 because of a hard forecheck that caused the Knights problems. It was even more impressive that Dallas pulled it off without suspended captain Jamie Benn and right wing Evgenii Dadonov, who remains out with a lower-body injury.
The Stars will get a boost coming back home, where they are 6-3 in the playoffs and 1-1 this series. Benn will be back in the lineup with his two-game suspension for cross-checking Knights captain Mark Stone over. Benn was Dallas’ second-leading scorer with 78 points in the regular season and has 11 points in 16 playoff games.
“He’s an angry bear walking around, waiting to play again,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He’s been sitting with our video coaches watching the games. He’s not a really good spectator. He’ll be excited to play.”
The Knights need to counteract the jolt Benn’s return will give Dallas and its home crowd.
They have to vary their breakouts to slow the pressure the Stars are bringing in the offensive zone. The Knights also need to take better care of the puck. Their 24 giveaways in Game 5 were tied for the second-most in franchise history.
The team is expected to make a few lineup changes. Michael Amadio will bump up to second-line right wing, while Nicolas Roy will move to fourth-line center. Brett Howden will shift from fourth-line center to left wing on a line with center Chandler Stephenson and Stone.
Both losses in the series have been close.
The Knights were tied 2-2 after two periods in Games 4 and 5. But Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger shut the door each time to improve to 4-1 with a .949 save percentage in elimination games.
“We have an opportunity to win a hockey game and advance to the last piece of the puzzle,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’re looking at it that way. We’re not going to beat ourselves up because we didn’t get it done the previous two games. We have discussed why and what we need to do better. We’ve done that all year. I like where we are right now.”
Knights at Stars, Game 6 (5 p.m.)
TV: ESPN
Radio: KKGK (98.9 FM, 1340 AM)
Line: Stars -130; total 5½
Knights’ projected lineup:
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith — William Karlsson — Michael Amadio
Brett Howden — Chandler Stephenson — Mark Stone
William Carrier — Nicolas Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Alec Martinez — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Nic Hague — Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Contact Ben Gotz at [email protected]. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.
