In Dallas, a wild opening stanza ended with a 3-2 lead to the Vegas Golden Knights over the Stars. 
It ended up a tight match with the two team,s trading goals over the final 40 minutes for a 4-3 win to the Knights and a 1-0 series in lead in their opening round Stanley Cup Playoff match up with Dallas.
Mark Stone returned the Vegas bench after recovering from a lacerated spleen, he scored in his first game back.
“I was nervous. I think I would probably be a little nervous, even if I played all 82 games,” Stone said. “It’s the playoffs. This is what we can play for, and then once the game gets going, you realize why you’re playing. It’s so much fun to be out there.”
Logan Thompson made 27 saves in the win.
“We defended well,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought we played the right way and stuck with it. We know how to do that. We know how to win. We’ve heard all types of comments on the bench, as do they. Good teams this time of the year don’t tend to panic in those situations. We certainly didn’t.”
Stone made his presence felt early when he staked the Knights to a 1-0 lead at 1:23 of the opening stanza. He scored off a deflection.
“That was a big goal for us,” Stone said. “You got to get off to a good start on the road. That’s key.”
Jonathan Marchessault pushed the lead to 2-0 at 8:27, scoring from down low.
Dallas replied at 16:07 of the first on a strike by Jamie Benn to trim the deficit to 2-1, he scored off a breakaway off a nifty pass from Wyatt Johnston.
Tomas Hertl got that one back at 17:51, he scored off an easy tap in to push the lead back to two, at 3-1.
“Tomas is very good in there,” Cassidy said. “He’s a big man. So, once he establishes a position, he’s going to be hard to move. He’s got quick hands. He showed that. We’ve talked about that since he’s come to our team. We’ve talked about how he’s a natural, true net presence. He showed that tonight.”
Dallas replied quickly with a marker form Robertson scored just 38 seconds later for a 3-2 score headed to the middle frame.
Game 2 is set for Wednesday in Dallas.
“We didn’t give them much, you know?” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “A tight-checking game. I mean, you get to two teams that have played pretty tight. So, that’s what it’s going to look like, I think. You can’t chase the game the whole series. I thought tonight we were chasing the game all night. So, we’ve got to make sure we fix that going forward.”
In the middle frame, Brayden McNabb stretched the lead back to two at 4-2 when he scored at 1:06.
Dallas made it close in the third period when Mason Marchment closed the gap to 4-3 at 11:46.
“We 
had tons of chances. It easily could have gone our way,” Marchment said. “I definitely felt like we started to get to our game in the second half of the game. … We know we can play 5-on-5 and control them, and let’s try to get the lead and go from there.”
Jake Oettinger made 11 saves in the loss.
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