Johnston scores again and Stars beat Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 4 to even series

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The blast from the point hit Roope Hintz in the right arm, causing him to fall to the ice in pain.

Just seconds later, however, he sent the same puck into the empty net on the other side of the rink to seal the victory.

“That's how you win championships,” Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger said.

The Stars as a team are showing their mettle, bouncing back from losing the first two games of their NHL playoffs first-round series at home by beating the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights twice in their building, including 4-2 on Monday night.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Dallas.

Evgenii Dadonov, Wyatt Johnston and Ty Dellandrea also scored for the Stars, and Oettinger made 33 saves. Johnston has three goals in the past two games, including the Game 3 winner in overtime.

Michael Amadio and Jack Eichel had goals for the Golden Knights, and Logan Thompson stopped 28 shots. Eichel has scored goals in three consecutive games and has six points in this series.

Both teams were the beneficiaries of goals in the first period the goalies would like to have back.

Amadio squeezed a rebound that trickled past Oettinger with 5:35 left, and 2 1/2 minutes later Dadonov scored from the goal line when the puck went off Thompson's mask into the net. The Knights outshot the Stars 14-8 in the period.

That changed in the second when the Stars outshot Vegas 17-6 and scored twice to take a 3-2 lead.

Eichel knocked in a goal off a rebound 3:09 into the period, and Johnston had a power-play goal off a rebound midway through the period to tie it again. The Stars benefited from a bit of good luck when Craig Smith's shot went off Dellandrea's chest and into the net with 1:26 left.

Knights coach Bruce Cassidy called Dellandrea's goal “inexcusable.”

“We can get out of the period 2-2,” Cassidy said. “We stayed too long in the shift. Then we mismanaged the puck. It's a fortunate play, but they're putting everything to the net. You're going to get some of those bounces.”

Dellandrea scored two third-period goals in Game 5 of last year's Western Conference final to keep the Stars' playoff hopes alive.

“He likes playing in Vegas,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He's a playoff-type player. He doesn't shrink in the room.”

Content with the lead, the Stars followed the Knights' playbook from the first two games and focused on playing defense in the third period. Even though Vegas outshot Dallas 15-7 in the third, the Stars repeatedly broke up scoring chances and forced the Knights into difficult shots.

“I thought in the second period we really took control of the game,” DeBoer said. “The play in the third period was just lock it down. You don't like to sit back that much, but I felt like we were smart like they were in Dallas when they had the lead going into the third.”

Dallas ended any doubts when Hintz buried the empty-netter with 1:22 left.

The Stars have shown they won't be an easy out. They came to Las Vegas down 2-0 and in Game 4 twice had to rally.

“There’s no panic in our game,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “You knew they were going to come out hard. They’re a good team. We weathered the storm and found a way to win.”

Benn appeared in his 87th playoff game as the Stars' captain, the most in franchise history. Derian Hatcher, captain of the 1999 Stanley Cup championship team, played in 86 games.

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Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) makes a save against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Dallas Stars centers Ty Dellandrea (10) and Sam Steel (18) celebrate after Dellandrea's goal while Vegas Golden Knights center Ivan Barbashev (49) reacts during the second period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Dallas Stars center Ty Dellandrea (10) checks Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel (9) and Dallas Stars center Matt Duchene (95) collide during overtime in Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) checks Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) celebrates after right wing Michael Amadio (22) scored during the first period against the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Dallas Stars right wing Evgenii Dadonov (63) and defenseman Chris Tanev (3) celebrate after Dadonov's goal during the first period against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday, April 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city, as Ukraine will allow prisoners to join the army's depleted ranks.

Putin’s comments on a trip to China were his first on the offensive launched on May 10, which opened a new front in the war and displaced thousands of Ukrainians within few days. It came hours after a massive Ukrainian drone attack on the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula early Friday caused power cutoffs in the city of Sevastopol after an earlier attack damaged aircraft and fuel storage at an airbase. In southern Russia, Russian authorities said the attack on Friday also set a refinery ablaze.

Moscow launched attacks in the Kharkiv region in response to Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, Putin told reporters Friday on a visit to Harbin, China.

“I have said publicly that if it continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a sanitary zone,” he said. “That's what we are doing.”

Putin said that Russian troops were “advancing daily according to plan" and said that there were no plans to capture Kharkiv, for now.

Ukrainian troops were fighting Friday to halt Russian advances in Kharkiv region that began late last week. In an effort to increase troop numbers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed two laws, one to enable prisoners to join the army and another that increases fines for draft dodgers by five times, one day before a controversial mobilization law goes into effect.

The town of Vovchansk, located 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border, has been a hot spot in the fighting in recent days. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated around 8,000 civilians from the town. The Russian army’s usual tactic is to reduce towns and villages to ruins with aerial strikes before its units move in.

By starting the new offensive, Russian troops “expanded the zone of active hostilities by almost 70 kilometers” (about 45 miles), in an effort to force Ukraine to spread its forces and use reserve troops, Ukraine’s military chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Friday. In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces have advanced 10 kilometers from the border, Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday.

Separately, in his strongest remarks yet on Ukraine’s upcoming peace conferences slated for next month, Putin said it was a vain attempt to enforce terms of a peaceful settlement on Russia. Putin emphasized that Russia wasn’t invited to the Swiss-hosted meeting.

He said that Russia was ready for talks but shrugged off Ukrainian Zelenskyy’s peace formula as wishful thinking. He said that prospective peace talks could be based on a draft deal that was negotiated by Russia and Ukraine during their Istanbul talks in 2022.

Meanwhile, the drone raids on Crimea marked Kyiv's attempt to strike back during Moscow's offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has added to the pressure on outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces, which are waiting for delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.

A Ukrainian intelligence official confirmed to The Associated Press that Ukraine’s Security Service and Military Intelligence conducted a joint operation to strike Russia’s military infrastructure sites in Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea coast, and occupied Sevastopol. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren't authorized to comment publicly.

The operation targeted ships and vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and was conducted by aerial drones built in Ukraine, the official said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 51 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, another 44 over the Krasnodar region of Russia and six over the Belgorod region. It said Russian warplanes and patrol boats also destroyed six sea drones in the Black Sea.

At least three fighter jets were destroyed in an earlier attack in Crimea a few days ago, according to satellite imagery of the airbase provided by Maxar Technologies.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, which is the main base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, said the drone attack damaged the city’s power plant. He said it could take a day to fully restore energy supplies and warned residents that power would be cut to parts of the city.

“Communal services are doing their best to restore the power system as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

Razvozhayev also announced that schools in the city would be closed temporarily.

Earlier Ukrainian attacks damaged aircraft and a fuel storage facility at Belbek air base near Sevastopol, according to satellite images released by Maxar Technologies.

In the Krasnodar region, the authorities said a drone attack early Friday caused a fire at an oil refinery in Tuapse which was later contained. There were no casualties.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted refineries and other energy facilities deep inside Russia, causing significant damage.

The Krasnodar region’s governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said fragments of downed drones around the port of Novorossiysk caused several fires, but there were no casualties.

Belgorov Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, killing a woman and her 4-year-old child. Another attack set a fuel tank ablaze at a gas station in the region, he said.

In addition to Kharkiv, recent Russian offensive attacks have come in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The apparent aim is to stretch depleted Ukrainian resources and exploit weaknesses.

Having strengthened their grouping in the northern region, Russian forces are now concentrating their efforts to advance near the village of Lyptsi, as well as the town of Vovchansk, according to Syrskyi, the Ukrainian military commander.

Syrskyi also said he inspected the units that are “preparing for defense” of the Sumy region. On Tuesday, the head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, reportedly said that the Russian army had plans to start offensive actions in Sumy.

Russia has also been testing defenses at other points along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, which snakes from north to south through eastern Ukraine. That line has barely changed over the past 18 months, in what has become a war of attrition.

Follow AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of a destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft and fuel storage facility at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of a destroyed SU 27 fighter aircraft in revetment at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a damaged plane, likely a MiG 31 fighter aircraft, at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)