January 24, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars center Mavrick Burke (22) takes action during the game between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Image The Vegas Golden Knights, who have won just five of their last 17 games, now hit the road to face the hottest team in the NHL, the Dallas Stars, on Tuesday night.
Dallas, second in the NHL with 88 points, snapped its 12-game point streak and a franchise-record 10th straight win with a 5-4 loss to league-leading Colorado on Friday night.
The Stars pulled off a comeback with a 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, with Miro Heiskanen scoring the game-winner 22 seconds into overtime off a pass from Matt Duchene to extend his point streak to 12 games, tied for the fourth-longest in franchise history. The record of 15 games was set in 1998-99 when Dallas won the Stanley Cup.
“We stuck with it,” Dallas coach Glenn Gulusan said. “… They’ve played us hard all year and given us a lot of problems. We were a lot better (Sunday) than the previous two teams. The guys got confidence from that and confidence going into the winning streak. We’ve done a really good job holding it together in these situations.”
Here’s a Golden Knights team that has underperformed since a 7-2 win over Nashville on Jan. 17: Vegas has gone 5-10-2 in its 17 games since and has dropped five of its last six contests, falling behind the Anaheim Ducks atop the Pacific Division standings.
A poor start and goaltending were the main issues. Vegas has fallen behind 3-0 for the fourth time in five games.
The Golden Knights lost 4-2 on Sunday to third-place Edmonton, which has its own defensive issues. Noah Hanifin scored midway through the second quarter to tie the score at 1-1, but the game was not as close as the score indicated, with Edmonton hitting the post or crossbar three times before that. Then, Vasily Podkolzin gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead with a breakaway goal early in the third quarter, and Leon Draisaitl scored to make it 3-1.
Vegas made things interesting briefly when Jack Eichel made it 3-2 on a short-handed goal with 3:17 left, but Kasperi Kapanen sealed the win for Edmonton with an empty net.
“Things are difficult right now. It’s frustrating,” Hanifin said. “I thought we played a pretty solid game (Sunday). We had a lot of opportunities. I don’t think we’re getting that bounce right now.
“Obviously it’s tough to lose to a ranked division opponent, but I don’t think it’s going to get any easier. We’ve got another tough game coming up here against Dallas and we’re playing them every other day. We can’t just think about this. We’ve got to keep pushing.”
Another troubling fact for Las Vegas is that the Golden Knights have lost 16 of their last 17 games against playoff ranked teams. They won 4-3 in overtime against Detroit.
This match is the second of three regular season matches between the two teams. Despite scoring three goals in the third quarter, Dallas won the first game 5–4 in Las Vegas on January 29, with Mavrik Burk scoring twice and Myko Rantanen scoring the game-winning goal in the shootout.
–Field level media
