3 Keys: Golden Knights vs. Stars, Game 3 of Western Conference Final

No. 1 Golden Knights vs. No. 3 Stars
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS
Best-of-7 series tied 1-1

The Vegas Golden Knights will try to keep their shutout streak alive and take the series lead in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday.
Vegas hasn't allowed a goal in the past 117:24. Stars defenseman John Klingberg scored on Dallas' first shot in Game 1 at 2:36 of the first period, but the Golden Knights have not been scored against on 48 shots since.
Vegas lost 1-0 in Game 1 but responded with three second-period goals for a 3-0 win in Game 2 on Tuesday in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final.
"It's about having a good start and using our momentum from the past four periods or so to really try to push against a good Dallas club," Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch said. "It takes all 20 guys to have a good start and we want to go out there and win the first five minutes."
Vegas goalie Robin Lehner carries an active shutout streak of 131:44 into Game 3, though coach Peter DeBoer did not officially name him as the starter.
Lehner made 24 saves in Game 2. Each of his past four wins have been a shutout.
"What I like about Lehner, just composure," DeBoer said. "He makes a lot of tough saves look easy because of his composure in the net. He gives you a good feeling back there."
Teams that win Game 3 after a Stanley Cup Playoff series is tied 1-1 are 359-154 (70.0 percent) winning a best-of-7 series, including 9-1 in the first two rounds.
Here are 3 keys to Game 3:

1. Stars seeking more offense

The Stars need to find a way to break the Golden Knights' structure through the neutral zone. Dallas coach Rick Bowness said that starts with making better choices with the puck.
"We just didn't support the puck [in Game 2]," Bowness said. "It just became too much 1-on-1. It became too many poor decisions coming through the neutral zone with turnovers. Even when we shot the puck in because we had no other choice, it wasn't going in where we could actually put pressure on them."

2. Playing in five-man units

Bowness spoke about the 1-on-1 aspect that played against Dallas in Game 2; DeBoer saw the opposite from Vegas, and he expects to see more of it in Game 3.
"The neutral zone was a lot like our forecheck, and our offensive zone play too, in Game 2 compared to Game 1," DeBoer said. "We had one guy working in Game 1 and four guys watching. I thought last game everybody was working as a five-man unit in order to get up and defend, get up and forecheck, get up and play offense."

3. Face-offs

The Golden Knights won 11 of the first 12 face-offs in the second period of Game 2 and built a 2-0 lead. They had another would-be goal reversed because of a successful challenge by the Stars for goalie interference. They eventually made it 3-0.
Vegas won 61.2 percent of the face-offs (30 of 49) in Game 2, a big key to controlling the puck and the pace. Dallas won 60.0 percent of the face-offs (27 of 45) in its Game 1 victory.
"There's no question it's an important facet in the game; you're doing well on draws you're going to possess the puck a lot more," Stars forward Blake Comeau said. "I'm sure that's something they addressed after Game 1 and it's something we addressed after Game 2."

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Alex Tuch -- Chandler Stephenson -- Mark Stone
Max Pacioretty -- Paul Stastny -- Nicolas Roy
William Carrier -- Tomas Nosek -- Ryan Reaves
Alec Martinez -- Shea Theodore
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Nick Holden -- Zach Whitecloud
Robin Lehner
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched: Patrick Brown , Dylan Coghlan, Nick Cousins, Oscar Dansk, Reid Duke, Deryk Engelland, Nicolas Hague , Keegan Kolesar , Peyton Krebs, Jon Merrill, Gage Quinney
Unfit to play: None

Stars projected lineup

Jason Dickinson -- Tyler Seguin -- Corey Perry
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Joel Kiviranta -- Roope Hintz -- Denis Gurianov
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera --
Joel Hanley
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Scratched: Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Justin Dowling, Jason Robertson , Gavin Bayreuther, Thomas Harley, Landon Bow , Andrew Cogliano
Unfit to play: Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop, Taylor Fedun