Get ready for a Stanley Cup Final rematch between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers.
The Oilers punched their ticket to the Final on Thursday night, riding a fast start to a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
Edmonton will face the defending champions in the Cup Final and will be looking to avenge a seven-game loss to Florida last year. The Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year on Wednesday with a 5-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.
One difference from last year: The Oilers will have the home-ice advantage as they try to win the Cup for the first time since their run of five championships in seven years ended after they won in 1990. The series will open Wednesday at Rogers Place.
“We’re a good team,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “We’re a special team. And we feel good about our game.”
It’s the second straight year Edmonton defeated Dallas in the West Final to get a chance at the Cup.
“We put in a lot of work over the year, a lot of guys stepping up at different times,” said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, the NHL’s top regular-season goal-scorer with 52.
The Oilers got the jump on the Stars in Game 5, sending Jake Oettinger to the bench after scoring on each of their first two shots and taking a 3-0 lead before the second TV timeout. Dallas’ Jason Robertson got one back before the end of the first period, and Roope Hintz cut the deficit to a single goal by scoring on the power play at 12:27 of the second.
The Stars pushed for the tying goal, only to see the Oilers regain their two-goal lead at 14:28 when McDavid scored on a breakaway.
Dallas got within 4-3 on Robertson’s second of the game 38 seconds into the third period. But the Oilers survived the push by the Stars and regained their two-goal lead at 3:21 when Evander Kane’s pass from behind the net hit Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell and floated into the net over DeSmith’s pad.
After that, the Oilers locked it down, not allowing a shot on goal for the final 16:17 and avoiding a repeat of Game 1, when the Stars scored five times in the third period for a 6-3 win. This time, Edmonton put on a checking clinic, rarely letting the Stars find any time or space before Kasperi Kapanen’s empty-netter with 10.8 seconds left sealed the win.
As ESPN’s Sean McDonagh noted accurately, “These are not your father’s Edmonton Oilers.”
Oilers ride fast start to 6-3 win against Stars, return to Cup Final
The puck dropped at 7:20 p.m. Central time. Unfortunately for the sellout crowd in Dallas, the Stars didn’t show up until the first period was halfway done – and by then they were down three goals.
Rookie forward Mavrik Bourque, playing in his first playoff game, took an incredibly careless high-sticking penalty at 1:47, and the Oilers turned it into the game’s first goal. McDavid’s perfect pass from the left corner found Perry, who chipped the puck over Oettinger’s glove at 2:31. One shot, one goal, 1-0 lead for Edmonton.
Mattias Janmark scored on Edmonton’s second shot at 7:09 and that was the end of the night for Oettinger, who was visibly unhappy when he was replaced by backup Casey DeSmith.
“We gotta step up. It’s unacceptable for us to hang him out like that,” Robertson said. “Whole playoffs, he’s been our guy, the whole season. Just unacceptable from us.”
The change didn’t help. Just 58 seconds after Janmark scored, Jeff Skinner scored a goal he’ll never forget – the first playoff tally of his 15-year career in his second postseason game. Skinner, who had never played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs until Game 1 of the opening round against the Los Angeles Kings – and hadn’t played since — shoveled a puck past DeSmith at 8:07 to make it 3-0.
Skinner scored an NHL-record 373 regular-season goals without a playoff goal until Thursday.
The Stars got a bit of life thanks to a turnover by defenseman Brett Kulak in his own zone. Robertson scored for the third straight game by ripping a wrist shot past Stuart Skinner at 11:40 to make it 3-1.
Dallas did nothing with its first power play after Kulak took a hooking penalty 2:02 into the second period, but they converted on their second opportunity. Hintz beat Skinner from between the hash marks with Mattias Ekholm in the box for hooking.
But the enthusiasm at American Airlines Center died quickly. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm, playing for the first time since April 11 due to a lower-body injury, blocked a shot in his own zone; the puck caromed into the neutral zone and right to McDavid, who was in full stride. The League’s fastest player outraced Hintz and deked DeSmith before scoring to make it 4-2.
Robertson’s goal gave the fans some hope, but Kane’s fluke tally and the Oilers’ stifling defense quickly drained it. The last few minutes were mostly played in a church-like silence until Kapanen’s empty-netter completed the win for Edmonton.
McDavid was presented the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and touched the trophy after electing not to do so after last year’s Western Conference Final, when the Oilers defeated the Stars in six games.
Related: How did we do? Predictions for conference finals in Stanley Cup Playoffs
3 takeaways from Oilers’ 6-3 victory over Stars in Game 5 of West Final
1. Oilers heading back to Cup Final
The Oilers and Panthers will play the 12th rematch in the history of the Stanley Cup Final, and the fifth since the NHL Expansion Era began in 1967-68. It’s the first rematch since the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in 2008 and lost to them in seven games the following year.
“They are a heck of a team,” McDavid told ESPN when asked about facing Florida again. “They’re a special group. We’re a special group. It’s going to be fun.”
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Oilers is their goaltending. Skinner won for the sixth time in his past seven starts after returning to the net when Calvin Pickard was injured in the second round. Pickard had replaced Skinner after the Kings shelled him in Games 1 and 2 of the first round.
Skinner got the Oilers to Game 7 last spring and is eager for another chance at the Panthers.
“To be honest, I think I’m a better goalie,” he told Sportsnet when asked to compare his play last year and this year. “I think I’ve been through a lot of things last year and this year, and it’s helped me get more experience, more mental resiliency. I’m definitely a better goalie. I’m in a better spot.”
2. McDavid steps up
The Oilers played terrific team hockey. But McDavid, not surprisingly, was the game’s First Star. He also added another line in the record book.
His first-period assist made him the second-fastest player in NHL history to reach 100 playoff assists, behind only fellow Oilers great Wayne Gretzky.
McDavid reached the feat in 90 games; Gretzky did it in 70 games. The next-fastest player to reach 100 assists was Doug Gilmour, who did it in 125 games.
Not surprisingly, McDavid leads the postseason scoring race with 26 points (six goals, 20 assists), one more than Draisaitl. He led all scorers with 42 points in last year’s playoffs, when he became the sixth player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP while playing for the losing team.
3. Stars again come up short
Perry’s goal marked the 15th time in 18 games this spring that the Stars trailed 1-0. That’s almost incomprehensible for a team that’s made the NHL final four. That included all five games in the series against the Oilers.
But this time was even worse. Allowing the first goal is bad enough; allowing the first three goals in just over eight minutes is an almost-certain recipe for losing.
The goaltending change was an act of desperation by coach Peter DeBoer. DeSmith hadn’t played in more than a month; his mop-up appearance in Game 4 of the first round against the Colorado Avalanche was his only action since the end of the regular season.
DeSmith gave up a soft goal to Jeff Skinner and ended up making 17 saves on 20 shots.
The offense, aside from Robertson’s four goals in the past three games, was no better. Wyatt Johnston and Matt Duchene, who both scored 30-plus goals in the regular season, combined for five in the playoffs. Johnston finished the postseason minus-16, and Duchene was minus-15. Those were by far the worst plus-minus numbers of any players in these playoffs.
The Stars also just got a lone goal each from Jamie Benn, Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov, who all scored at least 16 goals in the regular season. However, the biggest failure was star forward Mikko Rantanen, who had nine goals and 19 points through the first two rounds but didn’t score and had three assists in five games against Edmonton.
The result was the third straight loss for the Stars in the Western Conference Final. They tied an unwanted record by losing in their third straight conference final/semifinal. The New York Islanders lost three straight semifinals from 1975-77, with the team that beat them winning the Cup each time.
Mentioned in this article: Dallas Stars Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup
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