Golden Knights facing elimination after costly penalty in Game 5 loss

DALLAS -- One mistake. That can be the difference in a tight series like the Western Conference First Round between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights.

Alex Pietrangelo might seem like an unlikely candidate to make it, in a sense. The defenseman was the captain of the St. Louis Blues when they won the Stanley Cup in 2019, and he was a key contributor when the Golden Knights won the Cup last season.

But he has a history of losing his cool, and he swung a glove into the face of forward Tyler Seguin and took a roughing penalty at 15:19 of the second period at American Airlines Center on Wednesday. Forward Jason Robertson scored the winning goal on the ensuing power play at 16:32.

The Stars won 3-2 in Game 5. After losing the first two games of the best-of-7 series, they have won three in a row to take a 3-2 lead. The Golden Knights, the defending champions, will face elimination in Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday.

What’s the word Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy would use? Surprised? Disappointed?

“Both,” Cassidy said. “Veteran guy should know better.”

To give the full context, Seguin had hit defenseman Shea Theodore and taken a penalty for an illegal check to the head at 7:55 of the second.

Pietrangelo’s blow was blatant, though, and the game and series each were tied 2-2 at the time.

“Listen, we didn’t like the hit on Theodore by Seguin,” Cassidy said. “Quite obvious, left his feet, targeted the head. So, you’re going to be upset, right?

“But that’s playoff hockey. You’ve got to find a way to channel it, and then there’s controlled aggression out there all over the ice in every series. That’s an area [where] you’ve got to take a number and try to get those things squared away [later].”

Pietrangelo received a one-game suspension for slashing Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl late in a 4-1 loss in Game 4 of the second round last season when that series was tied 2-2. That didn’t cost the Golden Knights. They won the series in six.

This time? We’ll see.

It was also the second Pietrangelo roughing penalty that led to a Dallas power-play goal in two games. Pietrangelo went off for roughing forward Roope Hintz at 8:34 of the second period of Game 4 on Monday. Forward Wyatt Johnston cashed in to tie the game 2-2 at 9:45. The Stars ended up winning 4-2.

Defenseman Alec Martinez brought up composure unprompted after Game 5.

“There’s going to be momentum shifts throughout games and throughout series, and you’ve got to handle that with composure, and I think we let our emotions get the best of us in the second there,” Martinez said. “It was obviously penalty trouble, but we got away from our game. I think (we) had a little too much panic in our game, a little bit too much of a fire drill. I mean, we’ve just got to handle the emotional side of it better.”

Asked about Pietrangelo specifically, Martinez calmly cut off the question.

“He's a leader on this team,” Martinez said. “You know, playoffs are an emotional time. It’s a revved-up environment. Can’t win without emotion, either. But you’ve got to keep it in check.”

This is the first time the Golden Knights have lost three in a row in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the conference final in 2020, when they lost to the Stars in five games.

This will be the first time they have faced elimination at home since the first round in 2021, when they defeated the Minnesota Wild in seven games, and the first time they have faced elimination, period, since the third round in 2021, when they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in six.

“We’ll hang our hats on the fact that we’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, so there’s lots of resolve in that room, a lot of winners in that room, a lot of pride in that room,” Cassidy said. “So, we’ve got to go home and win one game in the playoffs.”

He laughed.

“That’s something we’re certainly capable of,” he continued. “Will it happen? Dallas is going to have a lot of say in that. [But] it’s not this obstacle that we can’t do. It’s a home win, so let’s get after it, get some rest tomorrow and be ready to go.”

The good news for Vegas is that the margins are so thin. The Stars have scored 14 goals in the series; the Golden Knights have scored 13. The Stars have 116 shots on goal at 5-on-5; the Golden Knights have 113. One mistake the other way in Game 6, and these teams could be back in Dallas for Game 7 on Sunday.

But the Golden Knights have little to no margin for error now. 

“We have to take care of our discipline,” Cassidy said. “We just have to. It’s that simple.”