The Dallas Stars beat Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals to lead the series 2-1.
The main creators of success on the reporting evening were Russian hockey players - Anton Khudobin made 38 saves, and Alexander Radulov scored the decisive goal in overtime.
In the hopes of ending a scoring drought that had lasted almost two hours in the game after Jon Klinberg's puck 156 seconds into the first meeting, Dallas head coach Rick Bowness returned Radulov to the first link with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
However, the rearrangement did not have a big effect - in the first period of the third game, the Texans made only four shots on someone else's goal.
This was in stark contrast to how often Khudobin had to come into play.
Fortunately for the goalkeeper, Vegas' attacks were not yet dangerous enough to start sounding the alarm.
In the second period, “Dallas” nevertheless got involved in the game and had an impressive four-minute stretch, during which he inflicted eight shots.
But none of them became a real problem for Robin Lehner.
Then the Vegas players responded by storming, in which Anton Khudobin had to save, but he also coped with his task.
And yet, until the end of the second third of the match, the score was opened.
17 seconds before the siren, Dallas defender Jamie Oleksiak suddenly found himself with the puck in the wrong zone and outwitted Lehner.
The Swedish goalkeeper's dry streak was interrupted in the 172nd minute, and the Stars scored for the first time in 157 minutes.
If during the first two periods both teams acted perfectly correctly, then at the beginning of the third two Dallas players were punished with a small penalty in a short period.
The Texas held one minute of the game five by three, but after the return of John Klingberg, Hudobin missed his first goal.
Shi Theodore opened the gates of the nominal hosts from a long distance.
"Vegas" completely controlled the game in the third period and again allowed Bowness's men to make just four shots on their goal.
But they hid much more danger.
First, Seguin from the transmission of Radulov hit the shaft of Lener's stick, and then Benn found the space between his shields and brought Dallas forward.
But only five minutes passed and the score became equal again.
Mark Stone knocked over Khudobin and corrected the puck into the goal after Alex Tuck's throw.
The Stars tried to challenge the goal, but the referees noticed that Stone was attacking the Russian goalkeeper outside the patch, so he did not formally interfere.
As a result, the Texans also had to serve a team penalty for a time delay.
These two minutes became the most difficult for Khudobin.
“Vegas” threw all their strength into winning in regulation time, but the Russian stubbornly did not want to concede.
In total, during this period he made 16 saves, and during the whole match there were 38 of them - in previous games the Golden Knights did not throw so many.
The team could only thank Khudobin with a goal in overtime, and Radulov became its author.
Already in the 31st second of extra time, he accelerated along the right flank, received a pass from Joe Pavelski and threw it into the far corner with his hands.
The puck ricocheted from the bar into the net.
For the fourth time in the current Stanley Cup, Radulov brought victory to Dallas with his puck and at the same time broke the record of Russian hockey players for goals in overtime playoff matches - he had three such super important shots in his career.
The striker also scored the fastest extra time puck in Dallas history.
“Pavelski played just fine.
It seems like someone knocked the puck out of our zone and made a long pass to him.
Pav saw me flying, or rather sliding, to the other end of the site.
There was no one there, so he made a good pass, I drove into the zone, closed my eyes and threw on the goal, "Radulov commented on his goal.
Interestingly, after the striker hit Lehner's goal, half of the Stars' players rushed to congratulate not him, but Khudobin, on the victory.
It was the goalkeeper who was eventually recognized as the best player in the match, while Radulov was awarded the title of second star.
The Russian goalkeeper won the tenth match in the current playoffs, and is second only to Andrey Vasilevsky and his Tampa Bay Lightning in this indicator.
“Dobby played fantastic.
Without him, we would not have made it to overtime.
We owe him this victory.
And especially for his saves during the minority, ”- did not hide his admiration for the goalkeeper Bowness after the match.
Benn echoed him, in whose opinion Khudobin played "simply unrealistic."