The Golden Knights are returning home with a 2-0 series advantage after playing stifling defense in Wednesday's 3-1 road win over the Dallas Stars. The series shifts to Las Vegas Saturday for Game 3. VGK withstood an early push by Dallas and trained 1-0 on a Stars power play goal by Jason Robertson. But Jonathan Marchessault tallied the equalizer in the first to tie the score at 1-1. Noah Hanifin scored the game winner in the slot. And, Jack Eichel added the finishing touch with an empty net goal. The VGK defense held Dallas without a shot for about the final six minutes of the game. It was another heavy game with 108 total hits, 55 for VGK. Keegan Kolesar had nine hits in the contest. We talk about VGK playing close to a 60-minute game and are they peaking at the right time? We also grade Logan Thompson's performance and Zach Whitecloud with another rough outing for VGK.

VGK is looking to extend its series lead to two games to none in the opening series vs Dallas having already taken home ice advantage away from the Stars. The Golden Knights held on to a 4-3 win in the opener. Bruce Casidy wants the Golden Knights to continue to play physical hockey. They more than doubled the amount of hits on Dallas on Monday night. We also will see how Mark Stone responds in Game 2 after playing in his first contest since Feb. 20. VGK scored twice on the power play unit Monday, so they will try to win the special teams phase again. Cassidy said his team will need to generate more chances to win Game 2. They only had 15 shots on net Monday. The only injury for the Golden Knights was Nic Hague, who left the ice with eight minutes remaining in the game. We will see if he is able to go tonight. And, we have our locks and predictions for Game 2.

The Golden Knights now have home ice advantage in their opening round series vs the Dallas Stars by virtue of Monday's 4-3 win on the road. VGK won with netfront presence and by scoring twice on the power play. The debut performance by Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl on the same line was a successful one. Stone returned to the ice for the first time since Feb 20 and he not only scored a goal at 1:23 into the game, but it was his only shot of the contest. He scored his goal with Hertl in front of the net. Hertl also scored a goal after he won his faceoff and dove to the net to pot his first VGK playoff goal. A third goal was scored by Brayden McNabb with Ivan Barbeshev setting up shop in front of Jake Ottinger. Dallas fans booed Stone every time he touched the puck and even booed him during an intermission television interview. Stone logged 17:09 of ice time in his first game back. We graded Logan Thompson's performance and discussed if he will be in net in Wednesday's Game 2.

The Golden Knights begin their defense of the Cup title tonight in Dallas against the Stars. VGK should be back at full strength with Mark Stone, William Carrier, Alex Pietrangelo and others all expected to start tonight. We talk about Kelly McCrimmon's Saturday press conference which outlined the returns of key players, especially Stone. We questioned the line combinations for tonight's opener. Why no Dorofeyev in the lineup? No Martinez? No Hutton? And we have our locks of Game 1 and the series.

Our Chris Gawlik and Joey Erickson of Locked On Stars preview the VGK-Dallas series, which starts Monday.

The Golden Knights will be facing off against the Dallas Stars in the opening round of the playoffs beginning Monday night on the road. VGK limped into the playoffs and comes in as the eight seed. The Golden Knights lost in a lackluster game to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday, 4-1. Jack Eichel scored the only goal for VGK. The Golden Knights have now lost three straight to the cellar-dwelling Ducks. The Ducks Frankie Vatrano scored a hat trick in the game. We have a first look at the VGK-Stars series. And, it's that time of week - it's What The Friday?!?

The Golden Knights are looking to close out the regular season on a high note. VGK hosts the Anaheim Ducks and will look to reach the 100 point milestone in an up-and-down season. A win will also move VGK up in the standings to WC1 with a win over Nashville, and would put the Golden Knights into a first-round matchup vs the Edmonton Oilers. The Ducks have gone to the youth movement and tonight will feature the debut of rookie Cutter Gauthier, who led the NCAA in goals scored this past season with 38. He will be on a line with Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn. We also discuss the (never-ending) goalie situation. Bruce Cassidy had previously seemed to dislike a goalie rotation in the playoffs. Now he's talking about playing both Hill and Thompson in the playoffs. He talked about each goalies strengths heading into the playoffs. We have our Locks and Predictions for tonight's game as well.

The Golden Knights set the tone in the second period when they became a more physical team vs Chicago last night. It started with a Zach Whitecloud hit on rookie Frank Nazar. Then Nic Hague laid a big hit on Connor Bedard. Bruce Cassidy put together a heavy line that included Tomas Hertl and Ivan Barbeshev. They set a massive screen in front of Petr Mrazic and Brayden McNabb cleaned up a rebound on a spinarama to score the goal. VGK will be difficult to beat if they can establish that same netfront presence in the playoffs. The Golden Knights, with the win, moved up to third place in the Pacific Division. They lead the L.A. Kings by one point. Each team has a game to go. VGK will face either Edmonton or Dallas in all liklihood. Bruce Cassidy experimented with a lot of different combinations in last night's game. And, we discuss the Pacific/West playoff races.

The Golden Knights will try to avoid a letdown against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight, a team that comes in with the worst road record in the NHL. We are interested to see who, if anyone, the Golden Knights will rest tonight. VGK enters the night a point behind the L.A. Kings, who lost at home to Minnesota last night. If the Golden Knights win out, they could potentially land in the first wild card spot. The VGK first round opponent still has not been settled. We have an update on the Western Conference and Pacific Division races. And, our Locks and Predictions for tonight's game are on tap.