Golden Knights lose in OT, trail 2-1 in series

Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner gave the Dallas Stars an extra inch of space Thursday, and they gladly took advantage.

After losing what amounted to a coin flip, the Knights now find themselves in a precarious position in the Western Conference Final.

Alexander Radulov’s perfectly placed shot ended Game 3 after 31 seconds of overtime, as the Knights fell 3-2 to the Stars at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Stars lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 with a pivotal Game 4 on Saturday.

Teams that take a 2-1 lead in the conference finals go on to win 80 percent of the time (44-11) since the format was instituted in 1982, according to NHL public relations.

The Knights have trailed 2-1 in a series once before and went on to lose to Washington in five games in the Stanley Cup Final in 2018.

“Obviously it’s frustrating. But we’re not going to throw ourselves a pity party,” Knights forward Alex Tuch said. “We’re not going to blame it on anyone. It’s all 20 guys in our locker room that played tonight. No matter how much we felt like we should’ve won that game, we didn’t. And now we’ve got to move on to Game 4.”

The Knights rallied twice in the third period but couldn’t finish the job against Dallas, which was 23-1-2 during the regular season when leading after two periods.

Mark Stone deflected in Tuch’s shot for the tying goal with 7:14 remaining in the third period — Tuch was originally given credit — after Jamie Benn put the Stars ahead five minutes earlier. The ruling was upheld after a coach’s challenge from Dallas’ Rick Bowness.

Defenseman Shea Theodore scored on a power play early in the third to tie the score at 1.

The Knights, who lost fourth-line center Tomas Nosek to an apparent injury in the second period, dropped to 6-2 all time in Game 3s.

“We had most of the puck the last two games,” Stone said. “They do a good job having five tight. We’ve got to find a way to spread them out and get bodies to the net.”

Lehner finished with 20 saves and sent the game into overtime when he slid to his right to deny Benn at the buzzer on an odd-man rush.

The puck appeared to hit Lehner in the exposed area above his left knee and he hobbled off the ice.

“I’m a goalie. We take some pucks to the wrong areas sometimes,” Lehner said. “I was fine.”

On the first shift of overtime, the Knights turned over the puck in the offensive zone and Dallas quickly moved it ahead to Joe Pavelski in the neutral zone.

Radulov streaked down the right wing and took a rink-wide pass from Pavelski before he snapped in a shot off the far post for his eighth goal of the playoffs.

“It happened pretty quick,” Lehner said. “I thought they had a lot of odd-man rush chances today. That may be the only thing we need to clean up a little bit. I thought we had a hell of a game.”

Dallas goaltender Anton Khudobin bounced back after being pulled in Game 2 and finished with 38 stops, including 16 in the final period.

The Knights entered the third trailing 1-0 and were unable to cash in on a five-on-three early in the period. But Theodore sent a wrist shot from the point that found the back of the net on a power play at 3:49 to tie the score.

Theodore tied Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman for the league lead among defensemen with his seventh goal of the postseason.

Benn answered less than four minutes later, as he was given room down the left wing and sneaked a shot through a small crack between Lehner’s leg pads for a 2-1 lead.

“They were opportunistic, and that’s what they are,” Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “The puck got on the wrong guy’s stick in the wrong spots tonight for us. Benn and Radulov with a little bit of room. Those guys stick pucks in the net when they get those looks.”

Both teams answered the bell physically in the first period, combining for 41 hits before play opened up in the second and Dallas made a strong push.

William Karlsson created a breakaway in the final two minutes of the second period, but was unable to settle the puck and was turned away by Khudobin in tight.

Dallas then ended a 157:07 scoring drought late in the second. Stone’s shot was blocked, and he fell trying to back check, allowing defenseman Jamie Oleksiak a breakaway.

Lehner went for the poke-check and missed, and Oleksiak’s backhand trickled off Lehner’s left pad and across the goal line with 16.7 seconds in the period.

The goal ended Lehner’s shutout streak at 171:27, breaking the franchise record set by Marc-Andre Fleury in 2018 (144:04).

“We have Karlsson in alone just before that, and their guy makes a big save on it,” DeBoer said. “We had opportunities tonight to either get out in front or put the game away late. We didn’t capitalize.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.