After losing the first two games of their first-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Dallas Stars won the next three contests to take a 3-2 lead and put the reigning champions on the verge of elimination.
Without taking anything from the Stars’ extraordinary effort, the Golden Knights are doing themselves no favors including committing nonsensical penalties such as Alex Pietrangelo‘s during the Game 5 2-3 loss on May 1.
Late in the second period, with the score still tied 2-2, Pietrangelo lost it and committed a penalty that put Dallas in a power-play situation. The Golden Knights defenseman unleashed a right-hand punch on Stars’ Tyler Seguin, who fell to the ice and initially made the refs call a five-minute major penalty on the offender.
The officials reviewed the action and reduced it to a two-minute minor roughing penalty, but that was all Dallas needed to put another goal on the scoreboard and get away with their third win in a row to take the series lead heading into Game 6.
As Bally Sports’ Peter Blackburn wrote on his X account on May 1, Pietrangelo could have committed “the biggest bozo penalty of the playoffs so far.”
Golden Knights: from Stanley Cup Champions to Early Elimination?
The Vegas Golden Knights won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history last summer, in their sixth season after joining the NHL in the 2017 expansion draft.
Following four years of making the playoffs and an unexpected run to the Finals in their debut season back in 2018, having failed to make the postseason in 2022, the Golden Knights finally brought the chalice to Vegas in 2023 defeating the Florida Panthers 4-1 last June.
Things have been much tougher for the Knights this year, however, as they were never considered a clear-cut team to make the postseason, let alone win the title.
Vegas was, once again, on its way to proving every prognosticator wrong by taking a commanding 2-0 first-round series lead against the Western Conference-best Dallas Star… until it wasn’t.
After losing back-to-back home-ice games to the Stars on April 27 and April 29, the Golden Knights also dropped Game 5 in Dallas 3-2 on Wednesday, May 1, falling 2-3 down in the matchup and being forced to win out the remaining of the series if they want to advance in the playoffs.
Jason Robertson was the Stars forward putting the puck in the net one final time on Wednesday, scoring the game-winning goal, and elevating Dallas to a 3-2 lead that looked fairly impossible for them to get just a few days ago.
Golden Knights’ Bruce Cassidy Calls Out Alex Pietrangelo
Nothing can be blamed on a single play, but the truth is that Dallas scored their game-winning goal by taking advantage of a power-play situation following Pietrangelo’s penalty in the second frame.
Following the Game 5 loss, Vegas’ third in a row to give Dallas the series lead, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy addressed the media in his postgame press conference and called out Pietrangelo for his action.
“(I’m surprised and disappointed). A veteran guy should know better,” Cassidy told reporters on May 1. “Listen, we didn’t like the hit on (Shea) Theodore by Seguin–it was quite obvious he left his feet and targeted the head, so you’re going to be upset, but that’s playoff hockey. You have to find a way to channel it.
“There’s controlled aggression out there all over the ice in every series, so that’s an area you’ve got to take a number and try to get those things squared away legally.”
Cassidy was referencing Seguin’s hit on Shea Theodore from earlier in the game, one that was called for a minor penalty after review. The action was initially considered worth a five-minute major penalty, but the officials lowered it to a minor after checking the replay.
According to The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, the Golden Knights didn’t make Pietrangelo available to the media after the game due to “time constraints.”
Game 6 between the Stars and the Golden Knights is scheduled for Friday, May 3, and it will take place in Las Vegas. Before Game 5, both teams had split the series 2-2 by beating each other always on the road until the Stars finally won a game at home on Wednesday, May 1.
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