Miro Heiskanen scored the winner in the seventh round of a shootout and Jason Robertson had two goals in regulation as the Dallas Stars inched closer to a Stanley Cup playoff berth with a 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
Heiskanen deked a forehand shot and then roofed a backhand shot past Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson for the only score of the shootout. William Karlsson had a chance to force an eighth round, but Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger turned away his wrist shot.
Oettinger finished with 33 saves for the Stars (45-30-5, 95 points) who moved four points ahead of the Golden Knights (42-31-7, 91 points) for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Vegas needs to win its final two games on Wednesday at Chicago and Friday at St. Louis while also needing Dallas to lose both of its final two games at home against Arizona on Wednesday and Anaheim on Friday to make the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
William Carrier and Chandler Stephenson scored goals for Vegas while Thompson made 28 saves.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead late in the first period when Carrier’s backhand crossing pass for Stephenson from the right wing deflected into the goal off the stick of Stars center Luke Glendening.
Dallas tied it at the 13:31 mark of the second period on a highlight-reel goal by Robertson. He came down the right side and deked defenseman Brayden McNabb before firing a wrist shot past Thompson’s blocker side.
The Golden Knights regained the lead with a power-play goal with four seconds left in the middle period. Jack Eichel passed the puck to Mark Stone stationed at the left edge of the crease. Oettinger then stopped Stone’s shot attempt, but Stephenson charged the net and flipped in the rebound.
It was Stone’s first point in seven games since returning from a back injury.
Robertson tied it 2-2 early in the third period with his 40th goal of the season, deflecting John Klingberg’s pass from the point past Thompson’s glove side. Robertson became the fourth player in Dallas history to score 40 goals in a season joining Mike Modano, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
Vegas had a chance to regain a regain the lead with 8:10 to go when Evgenii Dadonov set up Karlsson for a one-timer from the bottom edge of the right circle, but Oettinger made a pad save.
Dallas then had a chance to win it in overtime when Roope Hintz went in on a breakaway, but Thompson made a glove save on his wrist shot from the slot.
–Field Level Media