LAS VEGAS -- Watch the replay of the overtime goal.
Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston wins a defensive-zone face-off against Vegas Golden Knights center Chandler Stephenson. In seconds, the Stars exit the zone.
Defenseman Chris Tanev sends the puck behind the net, and defenseman Ryan Suter rims it around the boards and out. Forward Jason Robertson races into the neutral zone and wins a battle for the puck with defenseman Brayden McNabb, who loses his stick.
Robertson backhands a pass into the middle. Johnston grabs the puck at the red line, accelerates over the blue line and goes around defenseman Shea Theodore. As Theodore stretches out his stick, Johnston fires the puck over the left shoulder of goalie Logan Thompson and under the crossbar at 16:23.
Dallas wins 3-2 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, cutting Vegas’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-7 series.
“It wasn’t by accident,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said.
It was an example of the game within the game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After losing Games 1 and 2 -- actually, even before Game 2 ended -- the Stars made a key tactical adjustment. It helped them dominate the first half of Game 3 and eventually win it.
The chess match will continue in Game 4 at Vegas on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, BSSW, ESPN, SN, TVAS).
“Well, the game’s all about adjustments, right?” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Both coaches, I think, want to let each other watch film and figure out what the other one’s doing.”
DeBoer laughed.
“Let’s make each other work a bit,” DeBoer continued. “So, I’m not going to get into the adjustments we made. But that’s the cat-and-mouse of a playoff series. We make an adjustment. They’ll adjust to that adjustment. Now we’ve got to be prepared for that.”