Mark Stone clears the air on his collision that forced Miro Heiskanen's exit with knee injury

The rivalry between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars has brewed over the years with a new talking point after their final regular season game of this season on Tuesday. Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen was severely injured after a collision with Knights captain Mark Stone and was required to be helped off the ice.

The incident occurred with 12:10 left to play in the third period and Dallas chasing the game at 3-2. Miro was coming with the puck from his defensive zone with Stone approaching him. On the way, the latter seemed to have been tripped by Stars forward Roope Hintz. Unable to stay on his feet, Stone fell in the process of trying to complete the play and awkwardly hit Heiskanen near the knee.

The D-man was immediately in visible pain and Stone was roughed up by his teammates. He was also handed a two-minutes minor penalty. After the game, the 32-year-old winger explained his situation form his perspective. Stone said:

“I go to reach to try and angle him out, and I’m not sure who it was that tripped me and I fell forward. You never want to see guys get hurt, and I hope he’s alright. I was trying to make a play and got tripped into him".

Miro Heiskanen has been one of the key members in Dallas' defensive setup. An all-situational player Miro has finished as a contender for the Norris Trophy for best defenseman in four of the last five years. This season he has averaged 25:16 on the ice and has notched up 24 points in 49 games for the team.

Roope Hintz couldn't provide clarity on Mark Stone's play

After the game, Roope Hintz was asked about what he felt of Mark Stone's supposed lunge that injured Heiskanen. To that, he didn't provide a clear cut answer choosing to look at the replays first.

"I don't know yet. I haven't really seen what happened there. I can't really dig into that yet. I gotta see that from the videos or something," Hintz said.

Despite the injury, the Stars kept up their fighting spirit. After trailing 3-1 in the second period, Wyatt Johnson scored two to put the game into overtime. With merely 20 seconds played, he scored his natural hattrick to win the game for his team and complete the comeback on the road.

The Stars and Golden Knights are almost evenly matched with Dallas having 65 points from 50 games while Vegas have 67 points from 51 games.