Rejuvenated Stars head into Game 4 after OT win

Of course, it gave them the 3-2 win in Game 3 on the road after losing the first two games at home to the Vegas Golden Knights.

But it was how that game played out that will mean so much going into Game 4 at 9:30 p.m. ET Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.

The Stars dominated the first half of the game, outshooting the Golden Knights, 30-12. But Dallas only led 2-0 by the middle of the second period because of the spectacular goaltending of Vegas’ Logan Thompson. 

Despite being beaten by Johnston’s first goal in the opening period and defenseman Miro Heiskanen early in the second,  Thompson single-handedly kept the game from being a blowout. He stopped four breakaways in the second period, two by Tyler Seguin.

“He gave us every chance to get back in the game, and we did so once it was 2-2, then it was a little bit different, but they executed better than we did,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said via Paul Delos Santos of NHL.com. 

With 9:20 left in the middle period, defenseman Brayden McNabb put the Golden Knights on the board, and just 3:10 later, Jack Eichel’s shorthanded goal tied the game at 2-2 for Vegas.

After all of Dallas’ hard work and dominating the proceedings in the first 30 minutes, it only took a little over three minutes for the Golden Knights to wipe out the lead and all of the Stars’ earlier efforts.

That had to be a gut shot. And to potentially lose a game in which they had totally controlled play to that extent to go down 3-0 in the series?

But Johnson’s OT winner 16:23 into the extra period rendered all of that moot.

“I tried a couple low [shots] and it didn’t work, so I figured I’d throw one up high,” Johnston said. “Luckily enough, it worked.”