Los Angeles (AFP)
The Dallas Stars will play their first NHL Championship final in 20 years, thanks to their victory in overtime, Monday night in Edmonton, against the Golden Knights of Las Vegas (3-2).
Well served by John Klingberg, Russian winger Denis Gurianov, with a powerful shot after 3 min 36 sec of play in overtime, freed the Stars, offering them at the same time their ticket to their first Stanley Cup final since 2000 .
With this forceps victory, the 1999 Stanley Cup-winning Stars took the Western Conference Final four wins to one.
They will meet in the final either Tampa Bay or the New York Islanders.
The Floridians, who lead 3-1 in the Eastern Conference final, need just a win to join Dallas.
The N.5 game will take place on Tuesday evening, still in Edmonton.
Besides Gurianov, Dallas can thank his Finnish nugget Joel Kiviranta who, by scoring a goal at the very end of the third period (2-2), snatched the extension.
Without forgetting their Russian goalkeeper Anton Khudobin who, by stopping 153 shots out of 161 in this series, brilliantly replaced the injured Ben Bishop.
"We got our game back. We scored when we needed to stay in the race and extra time did the rest," Stars forward Joe Pavelski said after the game.
As for Khudobin, "he gains confidence in each match, and yet his situation (as a substitute, editor's note) was not easy at the start," he added.
Result of the Western Conference final match played on Monday:
WEST CONFERENCE
.
Dallas beats Las Vegas 3 - 2 (ap)
Dallas wins streak four to one and advances to final
EAST CONFERENCE
.
Tampa Bay leads three wins to one against New York
Match N.5, September 15
Match N.6 (if necessary), September 17
Match N.7 (if necessary), September 19
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