Radek Faksa made a promise to his 2 1/2-year-old son during their playtime before the Dallas Stars took the ice for Game 7.
Faksa kept that promise by scoring the go-ahead goal in his return to the lineup after missing four games due to an undisclosed injury. His backhander 44 seconds into the third period lifted the Stars to a 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night, sealing the first-round series.
“I’m happy I did,” Faksa said. “And so I can show him the video in the morning and watch it together.”
Faksa, a ninth-season veteran and fourth-liner, scored from the circle to the left of goalie Adin Hill. Dallas also received a goal from 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston.
Jake Oettinger made 21 saves in his second Game 7 victory. He also had the Stars’ only penalty, which they killed off after he was called for tripping Ivan Barbashev in front of the net midway through the third period.
“The last period was a clinic. Just so proud of the guys for how we responded,” Oettinger said. “It’s a long playoff, and you’re going to need different guys to step up at different times. A lot of hockey left, so hopefully a lot more heroes. It’s going to be a fun ride.”
As the No. 1 seed in the West, the Stars advance to play Colorado in the second round. Game 1 is in Dallas on Tuesday night, a week after the Avalanche finished their series against Winnipeg with a Game 5 win.
Brett Howden scored for Vegas, which couldn’t replicate its previous series win in Dallas, where they clinched the Western Conference Final last year in Game 6. Hill made 22 saves in his third game of this series after Logan Thompson started the first four.
The visiting team won the series’ first four games before the home teams claimed the last three.
“There’s probably a lot of doubters out there. After Game 2, they probably thought we couldn’t come back,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “A lot of believers in this room, in this organization. And we showed ’em.”
Dallas has now won Game 7s in each of its first two postseasons under coach Pete DeBoer, who remains undefeated in such games with an 8-0 record across four different teams. That includes the Knights’ only Game 7 wins in 2020 and 2021 when he was their coach.
Johnston scored his series-high fourth goal on a wrister from the top of the slot with 5:26 left in the first period after intercepting a clearing pass from Shea Theodore, which Tomas Hertl missed when attempting to swipe at it.
Johnston, who became the youngest player in NHL history with a game-winning goal in a Game 7 during last year’s second-round series against Seattle, now has another clutch goal to his name.
The goal on Sunday came quickly after Vegas had two scoring opportunities. Oettinger made a tough save to deny Jack Eichel, and Jonathan Marchessault hit the post with the rebound before Johnston scored about 10 seconds later.
“I think a couple of our players will probably not sleep tonight because if you look at what transpired in the game,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We hit a post, take them down, they score 10 seconds later. We miss an open net at the end of the second, and they score on the first shift of the third. … It’s a little bit of hockey sometimes when two close teams play.”
The series ended with both teams scoring 16 goals each.
Vegas, which returned 22 of its 27 players from the Stanley Cup-winning roster, tied the game in the second period when Michael Amadio made a crossing pass to Howden, who poked the puck into the open left side of the net behind Oettinger.
The only coach besides DeBoer to win eight Game 7s is Darryl Sutter, who was 8-3 in such games over 182 playoff games spanning 15 postseasons with four teams.
The Knights are now 2-2 in Game 7s. DeBoer was also the opposing coach in their other loss, to San Jose in 2019.
This series marked only the second time out of 16 that the Stars won a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games. The other instance was the franchise’s first playoff series in 1968, when the Minnesota North Stars rallied to beat the Los Angeles Kings in seven games to open the playoffs.
