Stars hold off Golden Knights in Game 4 of Western Final

Anton Khudobin made 32 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in Game 4 to extend their lead in the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday.

Jamie Benn and Joe Pavelski scored for Dallas, the No. 3 seed, which is one win from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2000.
"We understand where we are at and we haven't done anything yet," Pavelski said. "We're in position. We're one step closer, but nothing's been accomplished yet, so we'll just stay focused, try to play our best game of the series (in Game 5)."
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Game 5 is in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Since the conference format was adopted for the 1981-82 season, teams with a 3-1 lead in the conference finals are 34-1 (97.1 percent) winning the series. They are 288-29 (90.9 percent) winning any best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series, including 10-0 in the first two rounds this season.
Alec Martinez scored, and Robin Lehner made 18 saves for Vegas, the No. 1 seed.
"I thought we created some really good looks," Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. "I think we hit two or three posts. Obviously with one goal, we've got to find other ways to make it tougher on [Khudobin], but the effort is there to do that. We had enough looks tonight to extend the lead at different points. We've just got to stick with it."
Benn gave the Stars a 2-1 lead with 59 seconds remaining in the second period when he scored on the power play from the slot after John Klingberg's attempt was blocked in front.
"We're staying in the moment here as a group and taking it one game at a time," Benn said. "It wasn't pretty tonight, but we found a way to get it done."

Martinez gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal on a one-timer from the top of the right circle at 7:44 of the second.
"It was just a good face-off win. I think it might have been [Paul Stastny]," Martinez said. "There might have been some help with the other forwards and I'm just trying to shoot the puck and fortunately it went in. Just trying to get shots on the power play, and kind of how I mentioned, we've just got to keep peppering [Khudobin]."
Pavelski scored his ninth goal of the postseason to tie it 1-1 at 11:34. After a giveaway by Nate Schmidt, Pavelski got the puck and shot a backhand that hit Schmidt's stick and floated past Lehner's glove.
"We needed something to get us going, that Pavelski goal got us going," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "Gave us a big lift and gave us some energy. Very happy with how we gutted it out in the third period. … When the game is on the line like that and your players respond like we did tonight, from a coaching perspective, we're pretty happy with that. They gutted that out."
Vegas was 1-for-5 on the power play and didn't score on a 5-on-3 for 1:10 late in the third period.
"He's doing a good job being able to see the puck," Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith said of Khudobin, who made three saves during the 5-on-3. "Where we are right now, we just have to keep putting pucks on net and trying to find rebounds."

The Golden Knights outshot the Stars 33-20 but were limited to one shot on goal in the final 4:08.
"We all have confidence in each other and know that we're a good hockey club," Martinez said. "We've just got to stay patient and stick with our game. … You can't try to do anything extraordinary. Everyone's just got to do their own job."
NOTES: Stars forward Roope Hintz did not play in the second period and played one shift in the third. "We'll have an update on him tomorrow," Bowness said. … Golden Knights forward Mark Stone appeared to sustain an injury in the second period but remained in the game. DeBoer did not have an update. … The Stars are 11-1 in Dallas/Minnesota North Stars history when leading a best-of-7 series 3-1. … It was the second time the Golden Knights lost this postseason when scoring first (10-2). … Since the conference format was adopted for the 1981-82 season, the New Jersey Devils are the only team to rally from 3-1 down in the conference finals, doing so against the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals before winning the Stanley Cup against the Stars.
NHL.com staff writer Tim Campbell contributed to this report