The Dallas Stars fell to the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-2, in a shootout in their first rematch with the defending Stanley Cup Champions since last season’s Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night.

The Stars held multiple leads throughout the game, but a late Vegas goal forced overtime and allowed the Golden Knights to escape with a victory.

“You knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer told the media postgame. “They defend well. Their goaltender’s playing well. It’s a good point on the road for us. I thought our execution looked like we haven’t played in five or six days, and that was our second game of the year. We’ve got some areas to improve, but we’ll take that point and move forward.”

After a scoreless first period, the Stars drew first blood as free agent signee Craig Smith batted a bouncing puck past Vegas goalie Adin Hill and into the net off a rebound. Vegas tied the game at one with 6:57 left in the second period as Kaedan Korsczak’s wrist shot beat Jake Oettinger high on the glove side.

Joe Pavelski gave Dallas an early third-period lead with a quick shot off a faceoff in the offensive zone. The Stars held the lead for most of the final period until Vegas’ William Karlsson deflected a puck past Oettinger from the front of the net.

Both teams had chances to score during the three-on-three overtime, but no one could put the puck in the net, and the game went to a shootout.

Vegas’ Shea Theodore scored the shootout’s first goal, and Matt Duchene scored to tie things up for the Stars. However, Jonathan Marchessault beat Oettinger to break the tie, and Roope Hintz’s game-tying attempt hit the crossbar to give Vegas the win.

“I feel like I played it the way I wanted to,” Oettinger said after the game. “Just sometimes, they’re great players too, so they make good shots. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

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WHAT TO KNOW

— The Dallas Stars lost their first matchup of the season against the Vegas Golden Knights and fell to 1-0-1 on the season.

— Both of Dallas’ games have gone to shootouts so far, and Duchene has scored in the shootout both times.

— Hintz made his season debut after missing the season-opener with an upper-body injury.

— The Stars were attempting to become the first team to beat the Golden Knights this season. Vegas is 4-0-0.

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BY THE NUMBERS

— Vegas outshot Dallas 34026, while the Stars won 52.1% of the faceoffs.

— Pavelski scored his 450th career goal, the seventh-most among active NHL players and 64th in league history.

— Oettinger made a season-high 34 saves.

— Vegas won the turnover battle 14-5.

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WHO SAID

— DeBoer on Hintz’s return: “Even at 70%, he’s still pretty good. Hard guy not to play.”

— DeBoer on Oettinger’s performance through two games: “He’s been excellent. He dealt with an injury and rehab over the summer, but he’s come back, and he looks really, really sharp.”

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NEXT UP

— Dallas (1-0-1) continues its road trip against the Anaheim Ducks (1-1-0) at 9 p.m. CT on Thursday.