Knights down Stars again, go home up 2-0

Jonathan Marchessault and Jack Eichel each had a goal and an assist as the Vegas Golden Knights produced a second consecutive road victory over the Dallas Stars, prevailing 3-1 on Wednesday.

Vegas holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round playoff series while heading home for Game 3 on Saturday.

Noah Hanifin also scored and Logan Thompson made 20 saves for Vegas, which extended its winning streak against the Stars to six games dating back to Game 6 of the 2023 Western Conference finals. It was also the fifth straight road victory over the Stars for the Golden Knights.

Jason Robertson scored for Dallas, the top seed in the West after finishing with 113 points in the regular season. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger finished with 23 saves.

Dallas took a 1-0 lead on a power play at the 16:47 mark of the first period. Robertson fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past a Jamie Benn screen and through Thompson's pads for his second goal of the playoffs and the seventh in eighth career playoff games against the Golden Knights.

Vegas tied it just 1:22 later. Marchessault finished an odd-man rush with Eichel by scoring his second goal of the playoffs, tapping Eichel's crossing pass into a wide-open right side of the net. It was Marchessault's 36th career playoff goal and extended his playoff point streak to 12 games.

The Golden Knights took a 2-1 lead at 18:53 of the second period. Hanifin, who had two assists in the opener, crept in from the left point and picked up a loose puck and fired a wrist shot past Oettinger's glove side and inside the far post for his first career playoff goal.

The Stars pulled Oettinger for an extra attacker with 1:50 remaining but didn't manage a shot on goal before Eichel sealed it with an empty-netter off a Marchessault pass with 33.8 seconds to go.