The Dallas Stars faced a must-win Game 3 at home on Tuesday night, trailing the Vegas Golden Nights 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals.
And absolutely everything went wrong instead.
Captain Jamie Benn got himself ejected within minutes of the opening face-off, Jake Oettinger gave up three goals on five shots in the first period before getting the hook and the Golden Knights rolled to a 4-0 victory that put them one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals.
Jonathan Marchessault, Ivan Barbashev, William Carrier and Alex Pietrangelo scored for Vegas. Barbashev and Nicolas Roy added two assists apiece.
Benn set the tone for the entire game with a head-scratching cross-check to the face of Mark Stone, with the Golden Knights already leading 1-0.
He was promptly given a five-minute game misconduct, was ejected and the Golden Knights scored on the ensuing power play to go up 2-0.
And NHL Twitter let him hear about it:
And then there was Oettinger.
Within seven minutes, he had the Stars down three goals, and it was clear he simply wasn't sharp from the get go.
Suffice to say, NHL Twitter had thoughts:
There are blowouts, and then there are games where one team appears to drain the will to compete out of their competitor. This was the latter, and it's hard to envision a scenario where the Stars actually make this a series.
Perhaps no image better summed up the night than a livid Max Domi trying to scrap with a visibly amused Nic Hauge, who simply kept him at bay:
The Stars need to dig deep after Tuesday night. If they replicate Game 3's effort, they'll find themselves on vacation by the end of the week.
Game 4 will be in Dallas on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN).
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