Stars know 'season is on the line' heading to Game 3 at Golden Knights

DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars have a familiar feeling, though it's one they wish they didn't, being down 2-0 in the Western Conference First Round after two home losses to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Naturally, their minds wander back to last season, when they fell behind 3-0 to the Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final, eventually being eliminated in Game 6.

It's a scenario the Stars hope to reverse heading into Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, MAX, truTV, TBS, BSSW, SN360, SN, TVAS).

“I’m sitting around the table this morning, I’m thinking of teams like (the) Washington (Capitals) -- they had to get through (the) Pittsburgh (Penguins) to go all the way,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “This is our team that we’ve got to find a way to overcome, even with everything going on with them, we’ve got to find a way to overcome them.”

Stars coach Pete DeBoer put it in simple terms.

“There’s all kinds of motivation, but no more than your season is on the line," DeBoer said. "I don’t think you need extra motivation other than that. I think the guys know exactly where we stand.”

The story does feel different this season for Dallas, however.

“Last year, it felt like all the games, they were dominating and we were trying to sneak one out," Seguin said. "We’ve played good enough [this year] to win games. There’s been times where I feel like we have dominated.”

The Stars allowed the first goal of the series, by Golden Knights forward Mark Stone, just 1:23 into Game 1 and lost 4-3. Game 2 was tied until 18:53 of the second period, when defenseman Noah Hanifin scored his first career playoff goal. Center Jack Eichel's empty-net goal with 34 seconds to play sent Dallas to a 3-1 defeat.

“If you remove yourself from the emotion of it, and look at the actual underlying numbers of things, the margins are razor thin,” DeBoer said. “I liked our Game 2 better than Game 1, and I didn’t mind our Game 1. Big save, big goal at the right time and our series can turn.”

Dallas will rely on its strong play away from home this season as it looks to flip the script. The Stars led the NHL in points scored on the road (57), regulation wins (24), and face-off winning percentage (53.9 percent), were second in goals-for per game (3.46) and power play (26.4 percent) and third in goals-against per game (2.63).

“The story is, we’ve got to get one. Start with one,” Seguin said. “The focus is we’ve been a good road team all season. We’ve taken pride in the bounce-back games and not going on losing streaks, overcoming that adversity faced as a group. We’ve got to find a way to win that first game in Vegas.”

The Stars will try to get that first win by taking a look at themselves first.

“It starts on us as individuals," Seguin said. "Figure out how to take one step forward. How not to focus on results but get results. Hockey is hard. But for the season we’ve had, we deserve better than this. It’s not a looking for empathy or sympathy kind of thing, it’s dig down and find something.

"All of us, we’ve got to figure out a way. We’ve earned the right to have that top seed in the West and one point back for the whole League. We shouldn’t be down 2-0, but here we are.”