After falling into a 2-0 series hole while losing six straight and nine of their past 11 games to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Dallas Stars had to do something in Game 3.

And they did. The Stars snapped their losing skid to the defending Stanley Cup champions, with 20-year-old forward Wyatt Johnston scoring twice, including the winning goal in their 3-2 overtime win Saturday in the Western Conference quarterfinals at T-Mobile Arena.

“We knew the situation coming into Vegas,” said Stars center Tyler Seguin, who finished with an assist. “We know these guys are the champs from last year, and we know how good they are on home ice. … We knew we had to come in here, we had to steal one no matter. Now, we want to steal two.”

Coming close but not being close enough to win games had been the narrative for the Stars entering Game 3.

They opened Game 1 with a 4-3 loss and were within striking distance in Game 2 before an empty-netter from Jack Eichel late in the third period created extra separation in a 3-1 defeat.

Game 3 saw Dallas find its footing early. Johnston scored the opening goal near the halfway point of the first period before Miro Heiskanen doubled the lead to 2-0 a little more than five minutes into the second period.

Having a two-goal lead, however, was short-lived. The Golden Knights tied the score on a pair of second-period goals from Brayden McNabb and Eichel.

Both teams struggled to come up with the winning goal in the third and in overtime. Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger finished with 32 saves and a .941 save percentage for what was his strongest performance in the postseason.

Oettinger’s counterpart, Logan Thompson, was one of the main reasons why the Golden Knights even reached overtime. Johnston’s first goal along with Heiskanen’s salvo that gave the Stars a 2-0 advantage was the product of an attack that went from struggling to find consistency in the first two games of the series to one that showed why the Stars are among the teams that could potentially dethrone the Golden Knights this postseason.

Through the first two games of this series, Thompson had faced 50 shots. The Stars already had 33 shots by the end of the second period before finishing with 46 shots, with Thompson stopping 43 of them.

Johnston was responsible for a game-high eight shots, with his final being the winner that he snuck beneath the crossbar and over Thompson’s shoulder from a side angle to bring the Stars within a game of tying the series.

“I tried a couple low, and it didn’t work,” said Johnston, who led the Stars with 33 goals in the regular season. “So, I tried to throw one up high and I’m lucky enough it worked.”

Stars coach Peter DeBoer reiterated afterward that his team had to be the more desperate club Saturday night.

DeBoer’s logic was simple. The Golden Knights were still going to have a series lead no matter what happened in Game 3. The Stars, on the other hand, had to find a way to avoid going back to Dallas trailing 3-0.

Getting off to an early start. Finding ways to constantly get shots. Making sure the Golden Knights were the ones who struggled to find cohesion at times. These are the details that allowed the Stars to win Saturday, and they’re also the attributes DeBoer said proves the team has shown gradual improvement since the start of the playoffs.

“What I do like about our game is that our game’s building,” DeBoer said. “Game 2 was better than Game 1. Game 3 was better than Game 2. That’s a great sign for me on our group.”

TORONTO — Star center Auston Matthews did not finish Saturday night’s Game 4 because of an illness, as the Toronto Maple Leafs fell 3-1 to the Boston Bruins.

Toronto now finds itself on the brink of elimination in its first-round playoff series, with a must-win Game 5 on Tuesday in Boston.

Coach Sheldon Keefe previously confirmed Matthews played through an illness in Game 3, and Matthews had been absent from multiple team sessions while recovering. It was more of the same in Game 4 when Matthews logged 14:16 in ice time before not returning after the second intermission.

“It is all related to the illness he’s dealing with,” Keefe said, responding to a reporter’s question on why Matthews didn’t return for the third period. “The doctors pulled him.”

Matthews was Toronto’s hero in Game 2, scoring the game-winning goal and notching two assists to lift the Maple Leafs to a 3-2 victory.

It was the Bruins again taking it to Toronto early Saturday. Boston jumped out to a 1-0 lead off James van Riemsdyk‘s opening goal to enter the second period ahead 1-0, and it quickly added to its lead with a power-play goal from Brad Marchand. David Pastrnak collected another with 41 seconds left in the middle frame to afford Boston a 3-0 advantage going into the third.

Toronto has now lost six straight playoff games at home, a streak dating to the 1970s, and has been outscored 21-11 in that stretch of home contests. The Leafs have also scored three or fewer goals in 11 consecutive postseason tilts to date.

Emotions were visibly boiling over for Toronto on the bench in Saturday’s loss, with cameras capturing Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander — back in the lineup after missing the series’ first three games with an undisclosed injury — exchanging verbal barbs.

“We’re grown men,” Marner said of their exchange. “We’re just talking about plays out there that we all want to make sure we’re 100% on. Just a little off page there. We’re not yelling at each other because we hate each other. We just all want to be on the same page and help each other out.”

Marner was the lone goal scorer for Toronto when he broke through with his first of the playoffs to cut Boston’s lead to 3-1 in the third period. That was all Toronto could muster, though, offensively. The Leafs’ power play continued to misfire and finished 0-for-3 in Game 4, to put them 1-for-14 on the man advantage in the series to date. Meanwhile, Boston has capitalized on its special teams’ opportunities with another power-play goal on Saturday (6-for-13 in the playoffs).

The gravity of Toronto’s situation now isn’t lost on anyone.

“We’re down 3-1,” Nylander said. “It’s not a great spot to be in.”

Keefe opted to make a goaltender change for the final frame by inserting Joseph Woll for Ilya Samsonov, who had allowed three goals on 16 shots (.813 save percentage). The Leafs’ coach declined to name a starter for Game 5.

“The reason for [the swap] is we’re just trying to change things,” Keefe said. “You get to get Joe involved. That’s really it. You’re trying to change the momentum. We’ve got some time here to talk it through [before Game 5].”

Boston went back to Jeremy Swayman in its net to break the goalie rotation it had cultivated between him and Linus Ullmark. Swayman had led Boston to victory in Game 1 and Game 3; Ullmark started the Bruins’ lone losing effort in Game 2. Coach Jim Montgomery explained on Saturday the plan had been to give each of Swayman and Ullmark a postseason start and then decide on a regular goaltender from there. Given Swayman’s success, it was an easy choice for Montgomery to keep him in the crease.

Montgomery had previously questioned if Swayman was “in [the Maple Leafs’] heads,” given his success against them all season. Swayman is now 6-0-0 against Toronto and holds a .956 save percentage through three postseason games.

Keefe felt it wasn’t for lack of trying that Toronto hadn’t been able to crack Swayman.

“I don’t sense any frustration,” he said. “Guys are pushing one another, guys are competitive, guys want to win. It’s all part of it.”

Toronto can only turn the page now to Game 5 on Tuesday, where the Leafs will extend — or end — their season.

“There was nothing wrong with our effort level here tonight,” Keefe said. “Guys are competing. It’s physical hockey. Guys are trying. That’s a good team over there. It’s limiting us. You can question a lot of things, can’t question the effort.”

Mikhail Sergachev‘s return sparked the host Tampa Bay Lightning, who avoided elimination, with a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of their first-round series on Saturday.

One of the Lightning’s top defenseman had been out since fracturing the tibia and fibula in his left leg on Feb. 7. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper had predicted the Lightning would need to “go far” in the playoffs to see Sergachev dress for another game. Sergachev surpassed all expectations by suiting up just 80 days following that break to be a last-minute addition to the Lightning’s starters.

“I felt like a hockey player again. It was unbelievable,” Sergachev said. I found out yesterday the [doctors] cleared me, and it was Coach [Cooper’s] decision [if I played]. I stayed at the rink a little longer waiting for the coach to say yes or no. And he said yes. I got very excited.”

Sergachev had hoped he’d be able to come by for Game 1 of the series but that didn’t pan out. Instead, he logged 17:03 in ice time and notched an assist on Brandon Hagel‘s second-period goal through his Saturday debut. Sergachev admitted to being “a little bit tired” in the end after so long on the sidelines. But Sergachev’s smile never wavered.

Even though he’s played nearly 500 NHL games since being drafted by Tampa ninth overall in 2016 and established himself as one of the league’s rising stars on defense, there were still a few butterflies present before Saturday’s game.

“Honestly, I couldn’t really sleep last night; it felt like my first NHL game again,” Sergachev said. “And then you go on the ice, and you get that [reception] from the fans in the warmup — it made me very emotional. I’m thankful to be here.”

The Lightning are grateful to be alive in their series, too. Tampa — still trailing Florida 3-1 — narrowly avoided being swept by its in-state rivals. The Lightning held a 3-0 lead after the first period but the Panthers roared back to cut the deficit to 4-3 after 40 minutes. However, Tampa scored the game’s final two goals to extend the series.

Tampa finally found its footing offensively. The Lightning exploded up front, led by two-goal performances from Steven Stamkos and Hagel and a three-point effort by Brayden Point. The Lightning power play also had its best showing of the postseason, going 2-for-5.

Stamkos credited Sergachev’s return for adding emotional energy to the group before the puck dropped.

“I got chills myself, with the reception he got,” Stamkos said. “The amount of work that goes into coming back from an injury like that, it’s impressive. The timeline is impressive, everything he’s done is extremely impressive. To go out there and jump into a series when we’re down and on the ropes, it was a huge boost for our team. I thought Sergy played outstanding tonight. Hopefully that continues because he’s a big part of our defense for sure.”

Sergachev in turn thanked Stamkos for providing much-needed inspiration from Stamkos’ recovery from a broken leg in 2013.

“Our trainer was showing me videos of Stammer skating like four weeks after [that injury],” Sergachev said. “That kind of pushed me and made me work because the first four weeks since the injury, it was tough mentally. But seeing those videos of him walking pretty much the next day and doing all that stuff kind of helped.”

It wasn’t easy for Sergachev to be back on the injured list. That February game marked Sergachev’s first night back from a previous lower-body injury that held him out of 17 contests. Sergachev was admittedly devasted to see his entire season halted at just 34 games, with two goals and 17 assists. And clearly he was missed, not only by the Lightning players but the fans who welcomed him back warmly.

“Did you hear the introduction? The roar just kept going on,” Cooper said. “All the guys on our bench got up. It was a stirring moment and I thought we carried that right into the first period.”

Cooper had no hesitation either inserting Sergachev immediately into an elimination game. Regardless of Sergachev potentially being rusty — or the high stakes at hand — Cooper knew his defenseman was a lock for the lineup.

“You can tell when a player is ready and when a player is not ready,” Cooper said. “Yesterday, we knew he was ready. I just wanted to check the box today when he showed up. I’ve seen it time and time again. It’s the look in the eye. He was a believer.”

Tampa Bay will continue to believe as well that its playoff run won’t end in Monday’s Game 5 — especially not with Sergachev now along for the ride.

“It was phenomenal,” defenseman Victor Hedman said of having Sergachev in the mix. “We’ve watched from close up how hard he’s worked to get to this day. Super impressed by the way he played. Big momentum boost for the guys. It’s huge.”