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.”
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