The Vegas Golden Knights will play the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final.
Vegas eliminated the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 win in Game 6 of the second round on Sunday to advance to the conference final for the first time since 2021. Dallas advanced with a 2-1 victory against the Seattle Kraken in Game 7 on Monday.
The Golden Knights (51-22-9), the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division, will have home-ice advantage against the Stars (47-21-14), the No. 2 seed in the Central Division.
Vegas and Dallas have played once in the playoffs before, the 2020 Western Conference Final, won by the Stars in five games. Dallas had not reached the third round since.
"I think we've got to play like we played Monday]," Stars forward [Roope Hintz said. "They're also four lines, they play hard, they play a good forecheck, so I think when we play fast and with our strength with four lines, I think we're good."
Jack Eichel leads the Golden Knights in the playoffs with 14 points (six goals, eight assists), Mark Stone has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) and Chandler Stephenson (six goals, four assists) and Jonathan Marchessault (five goals, five assists) each has 10 points.
Adin Hill is 3-1 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .934 save percentage, starting the past three games with Laurent Brossoit (5-2, 3.18 GAA, .894 save percentage) injured.
Hintz leads the Stars with nine goals and 19 points, Jason Robertson has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) and Max Domi has 11 points (three goals, eight assists).
Jake Oettinger has started all 13 games for Dallas this postseason and is 8-5 with a 2.75 GAA, .903 save percentage and one shutout. Scott Wedgewood has appeared in two games and has a 3.41 GAA and .833 save percentage.
The Stars have reached the conference final in Peter DeBoer's first season as coach. He was fired by the Golden Knights on May 16, 2022, after three seasons.
"There's a lot to unpack there," DeBoer said after the win Monday. "I think we'll just enjoy tonight and talk about that as we go forward."
Vegas went 0-1-2 against Dallas this season, losing 4-0 at home on Jan. 16, 3-2 in a shootout at home on Feb. 25 and 2-1 in a shootout in Dallas on April 8. Eichel, Michael Amadio and Brett Howden scored the three goals for the Golden Knights against the Stars during the regular season and nine players each had one point.
Three different goalies started each game against the Stars. Logan Thompson made 32 saves in the 4-0 loss, Brossoit made 41 saves in the 3-2 shootout loss and Jonathan Quick made 24 saves in the 2-1 shootout loss.
Jamie Benn (one goal, two assists) and Ty Dellandrea (three assists) each had three points against the Golden Knights in the regular season, and Joel Kiviranta scored two goals. Oettinger started each of the three games, going 3-0-0 with a 0.96 GAA, .967 save percentage and one shutout.
The Golden Knights have advanced to the third round of the playoffs four times in their six NHL seasons. They last advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, losing to the Washington Capitals in five games in 2018.
NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report
