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Dadonov’s OT Winner Leads Golden Knights To 3-2 Win Over Stars

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Laurent Brossoit Vegas Golden Knights goaltender

After a slow start, the Vegas Golden Knights (3-4-0) were able to come back late in the game against the Dallas Stars (3-3-1) and win in overtime 3-2. Jonathan Marchessault scored the game-tying goal with just over a minute left in regulation and Evgenii Dadonov scored the OT winner.

The Golden Knights welcomed back Alec Martinez to the lineup but at the cost of Mattias Janmark who was late scratch out with an upper-body injury. This forced the hand of the Golden Knights as they played defenseman Alexander Miromonov at forward once more. 

This game marked the first of twelve back-to-back matchups for the Golden Knights this season. Last season the Golden Knights were 8-0-1 in the second game of a back-to-back. Despite playing on back-to-back nights, the team arrived at American Airlines Center a tad late as they did not take a flight out of Colorado last night immediately following the game.

The team looked exactly like a team that had this flight malfunction happen to them as they came out slow, tired, and sloppy in the first period. Backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who got his first start of the season, held down the fort for the Golden Knights. 

The Dallas Stars had 21 chances in the first period and the Golden Knights had four.

But by the grace of the hockey gods, the score was somehow only 1-1 after the first period. Miro Heiskanen threw a shot towards the net and Luke Glendening found the tip for his second goal of the season. Just moments later Shea Theodore picked off a bad pass and threw the puck towards the net and it squeaked in past Anton Khuodbin.

The theme of the Stars controlling play and outworking the Golden Knights continued into the second period. Point shots were the main source of offense for both teams as they led to both goals in the first period. Knowing this, Will Carrier put himself right in the shooting lane to block a shot from Denis Gurianov in the second.

Carrier blocked Gurianov’s shot off of his left leg and was in excruciating pain. After play stopped, Carrier had to be assisted off the ice and did not return. The Golden Knights were down to ten forwards and one defenseman playing forward for the rest of the game.

Alexander Radulov got the go-ahead goal for the Stars off of yet another point shot. This time it came off a shot from Jani Hakanpaa and made the score 2-1. The Golden Knight’s offense remained mostly silent throughout the second period until late in the frame.

A perfect opportunity presented itself late in the second as Blake Comeau took a penalty. But the Golden Knight’s powerplay continued to be non-existent and they were unable to score yet again. That is 0-32 since last year’s playoff series against the Avalanche if you are counting at home.

The third period saw head coach Peter DeBoer shuffle up his lines to try and generate some offense. Marchessault, Dadonov, and Chandler Stephenson made up a makeshift scoring line. As a result, the team started to wake up a little bit.

Brossoit continued to have an amazing game with two notable stops in the period on Radulov and Michael Raffl. He was pulled with just over two minutes left and the Golden Knights used their timeout to draw up a play late. 

Marchessault forced overtime scoring off of a one-timer pass served up from Shea Theodore. He scored with just over a minute left and got his second goal of the season. A huge goal for the Golden Knights who were in desperate need of a hero.

In overtime, the Golden Knights completed the comeback. After being stopped on a wraparound attempt, Dadonov finished things off by scoring the OT winner digging in front of the net. Nic Roy set up the play with a relentless forecheck and the game was won.

Despite a sluggish first half of the game, the Vegas Golden Knights came out on top over the Dallas Stars Wednesday night thanks to a relentless “never give up” effort. These past two games are the first back-to-back wins the Knights have had this season.

The Golden Knights will take a day off tomorrow before returning home to face the Anaheim Ducks on Friday at 5:00 pm.