EDMONTON — When you’re an NHL coach, and you lay down the gauntlet at the feet of your best players, there really aren’t many Plan B’s.
“You hope they respond,” Dallas Stars head coach Rick Bowness said with a nervous laugh, knowing how it would look if they did not. “They’re our top players, and we’d scored one goal in two games, so clearly we had to mix it up a little bit. You go to them and you say, ‘Time to get this thing rolling.’”
In Game 3, Bowness re-united the line of captain Jamie Benn between alternate Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov, in hopes of lighting a fire under an offence that had dented the Vegas Golden Knights‘ twine just once in 120 minutes of hockey in this Western Conference Final.
“We challenged our veterans on (Wednesday) night,” he continued. “We can’t be counting on Denis (Gurianov), Kivi (Joel Kiviranta) and (Roope) Hintz — the younger guys — to carry the offence. The veterans had to kick in. That’s what we needed from our top-end players.”
The result? Benn scored once, assisted by Seguin, and Radulov ripped home the OT winner, assisted by Benn. The Stars won 3-2 to take a 2-1 series lead, and Bowness comes off like a genius, as Benn answered his challenge in spades.
He was the best skater on the ice in Game 3.
“Our team feeds off of Jamie Benn. That’s why he’s our captain, our leader,” Bowness said. “You come to the rink in the morning and you see the determination in his eyes.
“When he’s playing that hard and that heavy, he is one tough son of a gun to play against. And the guys feed off of that. When you challenge your veterans, someone’s got to take it and run. Jamie Benn took the ball tonight and got everyone going.”
Benn looked on this night like the player we’ve always thought him to be, but who has faded from memory these last couple of seasons: Jarome Iginla Lite. A hard hitting, offensive bull with a wrist shot that overpowers goalies, and those special leadership abilities that hockey players love to follow.
He only played 15:22, but had five hits and six shots on goal. In OT, he got a puck up to Joe Pavelski, who sent it across to Radulov…
Ah, we’ll let the Russian describe the goal.
“Our D-man made that stretch pass to Pav, and Pav saw me flying — well, skating — on the other side of the ice,” Radulov joked. “There was nobody there, so… I get into the zone, close my eyes, and shoot it!”
Radulov skipped the part where he starts the motorcycle, lifting his right skate Messier-style before rifling a deadly wrist shot high off the far post and in. Robin Lehner didn’t have a prayer on the play, and Dallas won this one just 31 ticks in overtime.
And to think, Radulov was shooting blind.
“C’mon,” he admitted. “I didn’t close my eyes.”
As the two clubs sat tied at 0-0 late in the second period, it was hard to believe that the Stars had taken part in that wild, 57-goal series with Colorado, where virtually every game was a 5-4 contest. Vegas, meanwhile, had played in four consecutive games in which somebody was shut out, dating back to Game 6 against Vancouver.
Then Benn scored late in the second frame, and what followed was some of the finest playoff hockey we’ve seen this spring, er, summer.
“It’s frustrating, but we’re not going to throw ourselves a pity party,” said Vegas winger Alex Tuch. “No matter how much we felt we should have won that game we didn’t and now we’re going to move on to Game 4.”
Cue little Dallas netminder Anton Khudobin, who was stand-on-his-head fabulous in this one, facing 40 Vegas shots. Not many teams could go this far on their backup goalie, but Khudobin just keeps on kicking out shots, with no sign of wear or tear despite this abnormal run of games the 34-year-old is on.
“Dobby was fantastic tonight,” Bowness said. “We don’t get into overtime without him.”
“We don’t get anywhere without Dobby tonight,” echoed Benn
As the third period wore on, Khudobin appeared to injure something making a save on a Nate Schmidt shot. He battled through, and as the final buzzer approached watched from 180 feet away as Benn nearly ended the game with a last second chance.
Lehner made the crucial save, but then he came up lame.
It was so 2020, waiting through an 18 minute intermission to see if one or both teams would emerge for overtime with new goalies. Alas, both returned to their pipes for the first overtime in what looks like it could be a loooong Western Conference Final.
“I’m a goalie,” Lehner said afterwards. “We take some pucks in the wrong areas at time, but I’m fine.”
“No, not injured. I’m fine,” said Khudobin, who had better stay healthy if this Stars run is to continue.
And so they’ll play on, in a series that has seven games written all over it.
