TC Martin

Road No Problem, VGK Leads Series 2-0 

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Despite finishing the regular season uninspiringly with a tumble down to the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference, the defending Stanley Cup Champions feel they are still the team to beat during these NHL Playoffs.  

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Playing with a re-stocked roster including captain, Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo, the champs picked up right where they left off after last year's Stanley Cup title in defeating the Dallas Stars 4-3 in Game 1 and 3-1 in Game 2, taking a commanding 2-0 series lead in the opening round of the NHL Playoffs. 

Facing a familiar foe, the Golden Knights, ignored all the talk about facing the top seed in the opening round of the playoffs on the road with revenge on their mind.  The Dallas Stars fell to VGK in last year's Western Conference Final in six games and lost all three regular season meetings this year.  

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With a roster and team seemingly in turmoil from battling all season just to get into the playoffs, that was all erased in a dominating performance in the opening game as the Knights led wire to wire and looked much like last year's Stanley Cup Champions.   

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In Game 2, it was more of the same, even though Dallas jumped out to a 1-0 lead but after that it was all Knights.  Goals by Jonathan Marchessault, Noah Hanifin and an empty netter by Jack Eichel put the game away and sent the Stars to their fifth straight loss to Vegas. 

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The biggest decision head coach Bruce Cassidy had to make coming into this series was who would be his goaltender.  After Adin Hill had a spectacular showing in last season's Stanley Cup run, he was unimpressive in the regular season finale, prompting Cassidy to go with Logan Thompson.  

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Thompson made his first career playoff start and was solid with 27 saves and followed that up with another outstanding performance with 20 saves in Game 2. Thompson has held the Stars to one goal in the last 101 minutes of this series.

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The Knights will return home for Games 3 and 4.  Game 3 is Saturday night at 7:30pm at T-Mobile Arena.