In Dallas, William Carrier scored with 3:41 gone in the first stanza on Monday night to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 1-0 lead over the Stars.

Really that was all the Knights needed as they smothered the Stars’ offense in a 6-0 win and 4-2 series win to send them to the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

“It was maybe one too many nights of us going to the well in an elimination game,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think that was our fourth and I don’t think Vegas has played one yet. Every time you play an elimination game, it takes a toll physically, mentally, it’s hard to refill that tank over and over again. I just didn’t think there was a lot left tonight.”

Carrier took a backhand pass from the backboards and then went wide right to backhand the puck for the lead.

William Karlsson, who scored a double in the win, added a power play marker midway through the first for a 2-0 lead, and the air came our of the arena.

“It’s a great feeling to finally clinch that final spot,” Karlsson said. “A lot of smiles and happiness all around.

“I think [depth] is huge. I think that’s one of our strengths as well, and I think that’s why we’ve gotten this far. If we can have all four lines going every night, we’re going to be a tough team to beat for sure.”

Whatever Dallas had saved for Game 6 was spent and the Golden Knights simply kept them to the outside and opened lanes for Adin Hill see the puck.

“They’re a real fast team. Their goalie’s been playing really well,” Vegas forward Jack Eichel said. “Obviously, they’re playing some of their best hockey right now, too, so they’ve got some good players up front, some high-end talent, and they’re tough to play against. So, we know it’s going to be a heck of a battle, and we’ll be ready to go.”

Hill  made 23 saves for the shutout.

“Most definitely our best game of the playoffs, and it came at the right time,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You never know when it’s going to happen, you always want to keep building. Boy, if we can bottle that going forward, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

Keegan Kolesar scored off a give-and-go with Carrier for a 3-0 lead to Vegas with six minutes left in the fist.

“It’s so tough to close a team,” Carrier said. “They go home and they get that desperation level high. Their bottom six guys played great. They scored big goals for them [in Game 5]. I think our bottom six guys kind of took it personal here and stepped up their game. I think every year you see a team that goes far needs that, they need big goals from their bottom six guys. [Dallas] got it the last couple of games, and obviously tonight we were playing well.”

Karlsson’s first let the air out of the building, Kolesar’s goal let the air out of the Stars, who slumped on the bench and ice.

“You don’t want to let a team off the mat,” Cassidy said. “We were up 3-0, there was some chatter about that, so we wanted to make sure we took care of business. Once we did get the lead, I thought we did a great job of staying focused on what was in front of us.”

Jonathan Marchessault scored off a pass from Ivan Barbashev  at 10:25 of the middle frame for a 4-0 advantage.

“I think maybe after Game 3 we did slip a little bit from our game and didn’t play to our strengths,” Karlsson said. “We had a meeting about that before this game. … I think we came out a lot harder. [Carrier’s] line kind of set the tone for that, and I think everyone followed. That’s what we learned. You can’t really drift from your game because they’re good teams this time of year.”

The only the noise in the building came from a rowdy Vegas fan base scattered across the arena. There was certainly no noise coming from the Dallas Stars bench.

“We put [Oettinger] in some tough spots. You can’t ask him to win that game by himself,” DeBoer said. “We asked an awful lot of him (this season). I thought he had a [heck] of a season. He was our backbone all year. That game isn’t on him.

“I feel bad for our group. I feel worse that he ends his season like that because he doesn’t deserve that with how he played this year.”

Karlsson’s double came at 2:06 of the third and sealed the win with a 5-0 lead. he goal came off a steal by Michael Amadio in the neutral zone and a back pass to Karlsson.

“Obviously, the guys were talking about it on the ice,” said Marchessault. “You go through ups and downs. To be back and battling with those guys and being back here, I think that’s an opportunity of a lifetime, and we’ve got to take full advantage of it.”

Karlsson then returned the favor when he set up Amadio  at 12:25 for the 6-0 final.

“This group in here and how much we’ve been through this year, I didn’t think we deserved to go out like we did tonight,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “Hockey’s hard, man. Game 1 (a 4-3 loss in overtime) we didn’t play great, but we probably could have snuck it out. Game 2 (a 3-2 loss in overtime) you play great and they sneak it out. They scored three goals on us in the first period twice in this series (also Game 3, a 4-0 loss). Like I said, give them credit. I’m still proud of this group and how many responses we’ve had throughout the whole year.”

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Jake Oettinger made 23 saves in the Dallas loss.

“We wanted to come out with a better start,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “We go down early, there’s still a lot of belief. We have a lot of understanding there is a lot of game left. Coming into this game, you want to give a little bit more for the crowd, get them in it. You know there’d be momentum coming. We just weren’t able to get that going.”

In Dallas, the visiting Vegas Golden Knights had four shots on goal in the middle frame, and two in the third on Tuesday night. For the game, the Stars outshot the Knights, 34-16 for the match.“Yeah, I’m not sure you could script much worse,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said after their 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

“I actually liked our energy. I loved us on the penalty kill. Even though we gave up the first goal and Jamie took the penalty, I thought we had the legs and the energy and attitude to kind of survive it and we didn’t. So, that’s the unfortunate part of it. Now we’re in a big hole and we’ve got to find a way to win a game on Thursday.”

Under most circumstances, you might think the it was blow out for the Stars.

And you would be wrong, badly wrong.

Vegas stormed out early in the game and took a 4-0 win in Game 3 for a 3-0 series lead.

“We finished plays right,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “So, you get a lead on the road, it makes it a little bit easier to relax and play, not to chase the game. Puck management, we played behind them, we forecheck, we create turnovers, and we play in the [offensive] zone with puck possession. We’ve talked about that being a big part of our game in the playoffs. We feel we’re doing something to put pressure on them. It wasn’t just luck or a fortunate break, we did it by playing the way we wanted to play.”

Jonathan Marchessault scored on the first Vegas shot of the night with 71 seconds gone in the game for a 1-0 lead to the Golden Knights.

Really, that was the game.

“A lot of stuff tonight’s between the ears,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “As a group, we know that you’ve got to beat us one more time. We have a tight group in here, a lot of character, and we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”

Dallas had no answer for the Golden Knights in the first period who built a 3-0 lead in the opening 7:10 of Game 3 of the Western Conference Final.

“Losses, you don’t like them this time of year,” Dallas forward Joe Pavelski said. “We’ve got to go play hockey. We’ve got to go out, reestablish some momentum for us, work as a four-line team like we’ve done all year and lay it on the line.

“Find a few goals along the way and try to get a win.”

Ivan Barbashev  scored at 5:57 of the first, off the power play, to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead.

William Carrier scored at 7:10 to push the advantage to 3-0.

It was not Dallas’ night, Jamie Benn took a major cross checking penalty, and game misconduct in the first two minutes of the game. That set the tone for the Stars who were outplayed from the opening face off.

Benn ejection was just 42 seconds after Vegas took the 1-+0 lead.

Adin Hill made 34 saves for the shutout win.

“I feel pretty good about my game right now, but it speaks volumes to our team too,” Hill said. “We haven’t lost many games in these playoffs. We’re on a kind of roll right now and playing really well defensively, so I just want to keep it going and just focus on the next game.”

Game 4 is set for Thursday in Dallas.

Alex Pietrangelo scored his first of the post season near the midway point of the middle frame for a 4-0 lead, and final score.

“We’re frustrating the top players, skilled players, but it’s a buy-in throughout the lineup. It’s not one [defense pair] or one forward line,” Pietrangelo said. “Yeah, there’s certainly matchups that we use, but collectively as a group, we’re clogging up the middle of the ice and we’re frustrating teams. Guys are paying a price, they’re blocking shots when they need to block shots, and [Hill] is doing his job when he needs to.”

At 19:38 of the second stanza, Dallas’ Max Domi thought the Star were not playing from behind nearly enough and took a series of penalties including  roughing, cross checking, and misconduct calls.

Benn and Domi will almost certainly face disciplinary calls this week.

Vegas had 10 shots in the first period for the 3-0 advantage, and then settled into a defensive game that smothered the Dallas offense for the next 40 minutes.

The Stars have a lot of soul searching to do before Game 4 on Thursday. They were not ready for the first home game in the series, and they were unable to generate any push back.

“Let’s put it this way: [He] made a mistake, he feels really badly about it,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think anyone in the building feels worse than he does about it. I’m not going to pile on him. He’s been a leader here for his entire career and leads by example every day on and off the ice. [He] made a mistake.

“Fortunately, Mark Stone is OK and we’ve got to live with the consequences, and the consequences was a big hole. But I’m not going to stand here and pile on tonight. I don’t think it does anybody any good.”

Dallas’ 23 shots over the final 40 minutes of the game were from the outside, and Hill was given a clear line of sight on each of them.

“The guys did a tremendous job on the kill early on,” Pavelski said. “When stuff like that happens, we’re killing it good. We get a rush there and it comes back and it ends up in our net. Guys were ready; we went in with good intentions. It looked like [Benn] was going to have a big game. From the couple of shifts he had, he was engaged right away, then got tied up and [everything] happened from there. We’ve just got to respond better.”

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Jake Oettinger got the start and made two saves on five shots in the first 7:10 of the game, before getting the hook.

Scott Wedgewood made 10 saves in a mop up role.

“They made some elite shots on some elite plays,” Wedgewood said. “[Oettinger is] 6-foot-5, that guy goes short side, which is probably the shot he should have taken was my read, take over the short side. … They made some nice plays.”