from David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

Coming off an emotional Game 7 victory two nights earlier, Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer reached deep into his psychological playbook in an attempt to prevent a letdown Sunday.

But Marc-Andre Fleury’s return didn’t help the Knights break out of their offensive slump.

The Knights were shut out for the second time in the past three games, losing 1-0 to the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final....

“Tonight just took us too long to get into the game,” Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “It took us too long to get that energy, that fire, that bravado that you need to play in these types of games.

“You got to be able to be on your toes from the drop of the puck to be successful when it gets down to this few teams.”

Defenseman John Klingberg scored for the Stars at 2:36 of the first period, and goaltender Anton Khudobin made it stand up with 25 saves for his first career playoff shutout.

The Knights were playing their third game in four nights and couldn’t muster much of an attack against the Stars, who finished the regular season with the second-best goals against in the league and reverted to that style to protect the early advantage.

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Below watch the game highlights.