Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 40: Dellandrea scores two goals in third period to lead Stars to 4-2 win

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a series. The Dallas Stars may only be halfway there, but they’ve definitely proven that they won’t be going down without a fight. And it was the most surprising of candidates leading the way, as Ty Dellandrea scored two in the third period to help the Stars to a 4-2 win. Not bad for a player who was only in the lineup due to the suspension of Jamie Benn and injury to Evgenii Dadonov.

The Golden Knights started out with the shot advantage, as they were hungry to get off to a good start to finish this series, but it was actually the Stars that had the best chance, with Roope Hintz getting robbed by Adin Hill’s glove. However, Vegas did eventually get the start they were looking for, as Ivan Barbashev drove to the net (with Ryan Suter not exactly challenging him on that) to make it 1-0.

But, the Stars probably want to keep playing hockey, so they weren’t backing down easy. In fact, it took less than two minutes for Dallas to respond, as a Thomas Harley point shot was deflected in front by Luke Glendening to make it a tie game.

The back-and-forth continued in the second period, with both teams exchanging a goal each early in the frame. Just 3:20 into the period, Chandler Stephenson was open in the slot and sniped it past Jake Oettinger, and then just 2:09 later, Jason Robertson got enough on his shot to flutter it over Hill’s shoulder and into the net to tie it back up.

Not even 30 seconds later, the Golden Knights got another chance to take a lead after a rough turnover, but Max Domi showed excellent determination to get to the net and clear the puck out of the crease to keep it at 2-2.

The Stars had a plethora of chances early in the third, but Hill seemed unbeatable in the crease, particularly these chances from Joel Kiviranta and Wyatt Johnston, which makes the next goal all the more surprising.

Dellandrea skated into the offensive zone midway through the period, and fired a shot that deflected off of Alex Pietrangelo’s stick and fooled Hill enough to beat him to give the Stars their first lead of the game. A minute and a half later, and Dellandrea was at it again, with the puck bouncing to his stick as he was floating into the slot, and he buried it for his second of the game and the period to give the Stars a 4-2 lead. The Golden Knights pressured to tie, but Oettinger held strong and the Stars held on to that 4-2 lead to live for yet another game.

The Stars won thanks to a few young first round picks in this one, with their two multi-point getters being 2018 first-rounder Dellandrea with his two goals, and 2019 first-rounder Harley with two assists, while 2017 first-rounder Oettinger stopped 27 of 29 saves for a .931 save percentage in the win. Jonathan Marchessault got assists on both of Vegas’ goals in the loss.