NHL

Vegas Golden Knights at Dallas Stars

· National Hockey League
Final
6 - 1

Vegas is golden again, beating Stars 6-1 with 6 goal scorers

Paul Cotter tallies goal vs. Stars

Six Vegas players scored goals and six others had points to help the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights wrap up their season series against the Dallas Stars with a 6-1 victory Saturday.

“It's pretty cool obviously, all the dads are here,” said Paul Cotter, who goal was his first in 18 games since Oct. 30. “When you get lucky enough to to get one while he’s in the building, it’s pretty cool. So maybe we ought to start bringing these guys here a lot more often. ”

Cotter joined captain Mark Stone, Zach Whitecloud and Nicholas Roy and Paul Cotter in having a goal and an assist. The Golden Knights began their annual dads’ trip with a 6-3 win in St. Louis on Wednesday night, and are 9-0-1 in such games.

Vegas, at 18-5-5 just past one-third of the way through the regular season, has an NHL-high 41 points. Dallas has 15 wins and 33 points in its 26 games, with three regulation losses in its last four games since an 8-1 victory over Tampa Bay a week earlier.

“There's a lot to like,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Our checking game was terrific. We didn’t allow them a lot of time and space. ... We wanted to get the right start, and we did.”

Cassidy also acknowledged the fortunate scheduling, with Vegas coming off two days off spent in Dallas. The Stars had played three road games in four nights before a day off Friday.

“It's a tough scheduled game. So I think knowing that, you have to do a few things, you have to be the smarter team, you have to defend well, you have to try and get the lead,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We didn’t do any of those things. We were soft around our net. We didn’t help Jake out."

Logan Thompson had 19 saves for Vegas, while Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger stopped 20 of 26 shots.

Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for Vegas.

Chandler Stephenson put Vegas ahead to stay just 2 1/2 minutes into the game on his third goal of the season, a short backhander after a blocked shot. That came not long after Stephenson had a short snap shot knocked away by Oettinger.

Whitecloud made it 2-0 with a wrister from the top of the left circle after some nifty puck movement, with William Carrier taking a pass from Roy and then dropping it to the trailing Whitecloud.

The previous four regular-season games between the Knights and Stars, going back to last season, had all gone beyond regulation. Las Vegas won a shootout at home Oct. 17 in the second game of this season and won in overtime in Dallas on Nov. 22. Plus, three of the six games in their Western Conference Final last May went to overtime.

This time, the Knights led 3-1 after the first period on Stone's eighth goal, which he got after his initial shot ricocheted off a defender's skate right back to him.

Evgenii Dadanov got the lone Dallas goal midway through the first period, knocking in a ricochet after Thompson knocked down Stars captain Jamie Benn's shot with his glove without being able to control the puck.

UP NEXT

Golden Knights: Play the first of four consecutive home games, against San Jose on Sunday.

Stars: Host Detroit on Monday night in the second of three home games in a row.

Regular Season Series

VGK wins series 3-0

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 2:24 Chandler Stephenson Goal (3) Backhand, assists: Brett Howden (3), Zach Whitecloud (2)
Goal 1st Period 5:36 Zach Whitecloud Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: William Carrier (2), Nicolas Roy (7)
Goal 1st Period 10:07 Evgenii Dadonov Goal (6) Snap Shot, assists: Jamie Benn (14), Jani Hakanpää (4)
Goal 1st Period 14:58 Mark Stone Goal (8) Snap Shot, assists: Ivan Barbashev (7), Jack Eichel (19)
Goal 2nd Period 15:01 Nicolas Roy Goal (4) Wrist Shot, assists: Mark Stone (16)
Goal 3rd Period 2:11 Pavel Dorofeyev Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: William Karlsson (14), Paul Cotter (6)
Goal 3rd Period 9:15 Paul Cotter Goal (4) Backhand, assists: Brayden McNabb (9)

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/vgk.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originVGK https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/dal.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originDAL
16 Blocked Shots 10
22 Hits 19
13 Takeaways 9
27 Shots 20
0 Power Play Goals 0
2 Power Play Opportunities 3
0.0 Power Play Percentage 0.0
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
23 Faceoffs Won 22
51.1 Faceoff Win Percent 48.9
9 Giveaways 7
3 Total Penalties 2
6 Penalty Minutes 4
Dallas Stars Dallas Stars Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Lian Bichsel, D Injured Reserve Dec 21
Tyler Seguin, C Injured Reserve Dec 19
Vegas Golden Knights Vegas Golden Knights Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE

Game Information

American Airlines Center

Location: Dallas, TX
Attendance: 18,532 | Capacity:

2025-26 Pacific Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Vegas 17 8 44 10
Anaheim 21 14 44 2
Edmonton 19 13 44 6
Los Angeles 15 12 39 9
San Jose 17 17 37 3
Seattle 15 14 36 6
Calgary 15 18 34 4
Vancouver 15 18 33 3

2025-26 Central Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Colorado 27 2 61 7
Dallas 25 7 56 6
Minnesota 22 10 50 6
Utah 18 18 39 3
Nashville 16 16 36 4
St. Louis 14 16 36 8
Winnipeg 15 17 33 3
Chicago 13 17 32 6
Full Standings