
(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
As the Golden Knights head into the Western Conference Final for the fourth time in six seasons, they meet a familiar foe, the Pete DeBoer coached Dallas Stars. Dallas had a strong regular season leading the Central division for most of the season but fell to 2nd place after dropping 8 of 10 games around the All Star break.
They got off to a slow start in the playoffs falling behind the Minnesota Wild 2-1. However, they then rattled off three wins including two beatdowns to clinch their place in the second round. They once again fell behind to the Seattle Kraken, again losing Games 1 and 3. Dallas stormed back with a pair of dominant victories in Games 4 and 5 but were forced to go to Game 7. They shutout the Kraken for all but the final 19 seconds and moved DeBoer’s Game 7 record to 7-0 all time.
The Stars swept the Golden Knights in the regular season thank to a pair of shootout wins. The only resounding victory was a 4-0 win at T-Mobile Arena in January, one of just two times VGK were shutout this season. The Golden Knights blew three leads in the two shootout games, scoring first in each game.
Let’s dive into the stats to see how the two teams matchup in ahead of Game 1 on Friday.
Record
Vegas: 51-22-9, 111 points (5th)
Dallas: 47-21-14, 108 points (8th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 8-3
Dallas: 8-5
Goals For
Dallas: 281, 3.52 per game (7th)
Vegas: 272, 3.32 per game (14th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 41, 3.73 per game (2nd)
Dallas: 47, 3.62 per game (5th)
Goals Against
Dallas: 215, 2.62 per game (3rd)
Vegas: 225, 2.74 per game (11th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 33, 3.00 per game (5th)
Dallas: 40, 3.08 per game (6th)
Shots For
Dallas: 2616, 31.9 per game (14th)
Vegas: 2587, 31.5 per game (15th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 336, 30.5 per game (11th)
Dallas: 384, 29.6 per game (12th)
Save Percentage
Dallas: .912 (6th)
Vegas: .911 (7th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: .907 (6th)
Dallas: .901 (13th)
Shooting Percentage
Dallas: 10.7% (7th)
Vegas: 10.3% (T-12th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 11.9% (1st)
Dallas: 10.3% (2nd)
Power Play
Dallas: 25.0% (5th)
Vegas: 20.3% (18th)
*Playoffs*
Dallas: 31.7% (5th)
Vegas: 17.5% (12th)
Penalty Kill
Dallas: 83.5% (3rd)
Vegas: 77.4% (19th)
*Playoffs*
Dallas: 83.3% (3rd)
Vegas: 60.0% (15th)
Blocks
Vegas: 1494, 17.9 per 60 (1st)
Dallas: 1151, 13.8 per 60 (22nd)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 226, 19.2 per 60 (2nd)
Dallas: 210, 15.2 per 60 (13th)
Hits
Vegas: 1930, 23.2 per 60 (13th)
Dallas: 1648, 19.8 per 60 (26th)
*Playoffs*
Vegas: 391, 34.3 per 60 (11th)
Dallas: 367, 26.7 per 60 (16th)
In the regular season, Dallas were better than Vegas in just about every significant statistic aside from wins. They scored more, allowed fewer, and were better in both special teams. The numbers have evened out in the playoffs as VGK have picked up their goal scoring.
There should be a fairly significant edge in physicality in favor of Vegas in this series. The Stars have the fewest hits of any team in the postseason and they weren’t much better in the regular season.
On to the fancier numbers.