Stars, Golden Knights coaches anticipate continued adjustments in Game 4

LAS VEGAS -- Watch the replay of the overtime goal.

Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston wins a defensive-zone face-off against Vegas Golden Knights center Chandler Stephenson. In seconds, the Stars exit the zone.

Defenseman Chris Tanev sends the puck behind the net, and defenseman Ryan Suter rims it around the boards and out. Forward Jason Robertson races into the neutral zone and wins a battle for the puck with defenseman Brayden McNabb, who loses his stick.

Robertson backhands a pass into the middle. Johnston grabs the puck at the red line, accelerates over the blue line and goes around defenseman Shea Theodore. As Theodore stretches out his stick, Johnston fires the puck over the left shoulder of goalie Logan Thompson and under the crossbar at 16:23.

Dallas wins 3-2 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, cutting Vegas’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-7 series.

“It wasn’t by accident,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said.

It was an example of the game within the game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

After losing Games 1 and 2 -- actually, even before Game 2 ended -- the Stars made a key tactical adjustment. It helped them dominate the first half of Game 3 and eventually win it.

The chess match will continue in Game 4 at Vegas on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, BSSW, ESPN, SN, TVAS).

“Well, the game’s all about adjustments, right?” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Both coaches, I think, want to let each other watch film and figure out what the other one’s doing.”

DeBoer laughed.

“Let’s make each other work a bit,” DeBoer continued. “So, I’m not going to get into the adjustments we made. But that’s the cat-and-mouse of a playoff series. We make an adjustment. They’ll adjust to that adjustment. Now we’ve got to be prepared for that.”

Cassidy said Vegas’ game plan entering the series was to eliminate Dallas’ rush game, because the Stars had shown improvement in that area in the regular season.

The Golden Knights did well in a 4-3 win in Game 1 and a 3-1 win in Game 2. But during Game 2, the Stars started rimming the puck out of the zone, and in the first half of Game 3, they did it with great success.

Dallas had a 2-0 lead and 30-10 edge in shots through the first 30 minutes of Game 3, generating odd-man rushes and open looks.

Vegas tied it 2-2 in the second period. Still, after 40 minutes, NHL Network analyst Mike Kelly tweeted Dallas had 16 rush chances. That tied the Stars’ season high for a full game. The Golden Knights had allowed more than 12 rush chances in a full game only once all season.

“Obviously, that’s something they saw in the first two games, that we were able to pin them maybe a little bit below their goal line,” Cassidy said. “They made a change. We did talk about it before the game, because we saw it.

“So, they were out of their end quicker. Now you got people coming with you, and then they start beating you up the ice, because we’re in-between a little bit. Give them credit for winning the board battle and then having the appropriate support, and we were a step behind all night with those reads and with our legs.”

It’s difficult for coaches to adjust during a period.

“On the fly, you can certainly say, ‘Hey, they’re rimming out a lot. Weak-side winger can play less in the middle and take away that rim,’ or, ‘[defensemen], get up in a hurry,’” Cassidy said. “So, there’s always some talking points that happen quickly.

“But it’s loud in there to go through the bench and do it individually. It’s always easier with a calmer, in-between periods [discussion].”

DeBoer said adjustments in the playoffs often last about a game, sometimes maybe a period, before they’re neutralized.

“I thought as the game went on, they obviously slowed it down a little bit there in the third period and did some things to slow it down,” DeBoer said. “I thought we got it back again in the overtime.

“It’s all about execution, though. The coaches are going to put in adjustments. At the end of the day, it's execution, and it’s winning those battles. You can draw up all you want, but a lot of it is one-on-one confrontations that you have to win.”

Cassidy said the Golden Knights will go over video before the game Monday.

“I know they’re going to respond,” DeBoer said. “They’re obviously going to play better than they did. It’s on us to continue to build on that game we had last night.

“We know it’s not going to look like that. We’re not going to have breakaways and 2-on-1s and the type of rush stuff we got last night, maybe not again in the series. But I think we’ve got a good blueprint of how we want to play, and I expect next game to be a real, real tough game.”