Brett Howden was the overtime hero for the Vegas Golden Knights in Friday night's 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars, sending the raucous crowd at T-Mobile Arena home happy just 1:35 into the extra frame.
Unlike Thursday night's contest between the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers that wasn't sealed until the dying seconds of the fourth overtime period, Howden ended Game 1 of the Western Conference Final in under 62 minutes.
“I just tried throwing it in there and got lucky that it went in,” Howden admitted afterwards, according to ESPN's Ryan S. Clark. “I think Oettinger put it in himself. I was just trying to throw it in there and see what would happen.”
It was certainly an unorthodox goal; after shooting a puck wide from the left side of the night, Howden recovered the rebound off the boards and fired a shot from below the goal line that banked off the Stars' netminder to seal the win.
ONLY NEEDED 1:35 OF OVERTIME IN THIS ONE.
Brett Howden tucks one home and the @GoldenKnights take Game 1! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/HKnd45xjY1
— NHL (@NHL) May 20, 2023
Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy admitted that in the playoffs, it takes more than just the star players showing up to win a series.
“It can't always be the stars, right? Or the guys that you would expect, and that's what's been good about our team,” Cassidy explained. “We've had different people step up in key moments. It's the time of the year where you got to enjoy the moment and kind of embrace it.
The Stars won't be panicking after losing Game 1; they were down 1-0 to both the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken, before winning each series in six and seven games, respectively.
But it's encouraging for Vegas that they can get timely scoring from up and down the lineup as they took the first step to avenging their 2020 Western Conference Final loss to Dallas in 2020.
Game 2 between the Golden Knights and Stars is set for Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
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