This time, the Edmonton Oilers made sure they didn’t let the Dallas Stars steal a victory with a third-period rally.
Two nights after failing to hold a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes, the Oilers evened the Western Conference Final at one win apiece with a 3-0 victory against the Stars at American Airlines Center. Edmonton won for the fifth time in eight road games this spring with a solid 60-minute effort – and did it without getting much in the way of offensive contributions from their big guns, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Instead, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put them ahead to stay with a power-play goal less than six minutes into the game, and goals by low-scoring defenseman Brett Kulak and bottom-six forward Connor Brown 1:13 apart late in the second period made it 3-0.
That was more than enough support for Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 25 saves for his third win and third shutout this spring. All three of his wins in this year’s playoffs have been shutouts; he’s allowed 20 goals in his four other starts, all losses.
The Stars, who’ve played from behind for most of the postseason, were their own worst enemies – they had more giveaways (27) than shots on goal (25). They were also outhit 50-29 by a team not known for being physical.
The Oilers, who gave up three power-play goals in the third period of Game 1, helped themselves by staying out of the penalty box. They gave the Stars just two power plays, and when Darnell Nurse took a foolish third-period slashing penalty with a chop to the foot that sent Roope Hintz to the locker room for the rest of the night, the Oilers held Dallas without a shot attempt.
Edmonton ended Dallas’ seven-game home winning streak and hosts the next two games, on Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night. The Oilers are 4-1 at Rogers Centre this spring.
Oilers even Western Conference Final with 3-0 win over Stars in Game 2
As was the case in Game 1, the Oilers got the jump on the Stars, this time with some help from a needless Dallas penalty and a broken stick.
Stars forward Mikael Granlund took an offensive-zone boarding penalty for a hit on Oilers defenseman Troy Stetcher 5:34 into the game. After the Oilers controlled the draw, Even Bouchard took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and fired from the right point. The shot broke Hintz’s stick and bobbled its way to Nugent-Hopkins, who was battling for position near the left post and tapped the puck into a wide-open net at 5:51 for a 1-0 lead.
It was his second goal in as many games.
Edmonton nearly took a two-goal lead near the midpoint of the period while killing a roughing penalty to Corey Perry. Connor McDavid led a short-handed 2-on-1 rush and fired from inside the left circle. The shot beat Jake Oettinger but rang the post.
It was still 1-0 Edmonton until the Oilers’ 73-second burst late in the second period put the game away.
Kulak, who entered the game with three goals in 89 career playoff games, made it 2-0 at 15:23. Mikko Rantanen blocked his shot from the high slot, but Kulak picked up the carom a few feet closer to the net and blew a 30-foot snap shot past Oettinger.
Brown entered this year’s playoffs with three career postseason goals but scored his fifth of this year’s postseason at 16:36 to make it 3-0. He got to the front of the net and made a sensational deflection of Nugent-Hopkins’ shot from the left circle.
The Oilers didn’t convert on two power plays early in the third period that could have put the game away, but Skinner made sure they didn’t need to. He denied Wyatt Johnston on a shorthanded breakaway, then made his best save of the night midway through the period by diving from left to right across the crease to foil Esa Lindell, who appeared to have an open net.
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3 takeaways from Oilers’ series-tying 3-0 win in Game 2 of Western Conference Final
1. Skinner steps up
Skinner was torched five goals, including four in the third period, on 27 shots in Edmonton’s 6-3 loss in Game 1. He more than bounced back in Game 2.
It was the fourth playoff shutout of his career and third in his past four games. Skinner closed out the second round with consecutive shutouts against Vegas before the Game 1 loss to the Stars.
“He made some really big saves for us tonight,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Stu had a lot of timely saves, especially the one at the start of the third period that allowed us to keep them off the scoreboard.”
Skinner said he felt he and his teammates played well in Game 1 but didn’t get the result they did on Friday.
“For me, it was just rinse, repeat, just keep on going. You can let in five and still give it your all,” he said. “That’s kind of what our whole mindset was as a team. I thought we played well (in Game 1). Sometimes the score doesn’t tell you the whole picture and we just went back out there and played the same way.”
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2. Oilers make Stars pay for another slow start
Nugent-Hopkins’ power-play goal marked the 12th time in 15 games this spring that the Stars have surrendered the first goal. Edmonton’s 1-0 lead after the opening period marked the first time this spring that the Oilers led a road game after the first period.
Amazingly, the Stars are 6-6 (.500) in the 12 games when they’ve surrendered the first goal. In this year’s other 59 playoff games, the team that scored first is 43-16 (.729), and in the regular season, teams that scored the first goal won 862 of 1,312 games, a .657 winning percentage.
Spotting any opponent the first goal is never a good idea. Spotting a team good enough to advance to the conference final an early lead is tempting fate. The Stars can’t expect to win if they keep having to chase the game.
The Oilers also won this game without much help from McDavid or Draisaitl – each finished with one assist. McDavid’s helper on Kulak’s goal was his 59th point in 31 playoff games when the Oilers have been trailing in a series. He also became the fourth player in NHL history to have at least 20 points in four consecutive playoff years.
3. How’s Hintz?
The Stars’ No. 1 center left the game early in the third period and didn’t return after Nurse slashed him on the top of his left foot while they battled for position in front of the Oilers’ net. Hintz was on the ice for a couple of minutes before being helped back to the locker room and was unable to put weight on the foot.
“We didn’t like it. If that was McDavid walking down the tunnel, I would like to see the result of that,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said of Nurse’s slash, which was originally called a major penalty but was reduced to a minor after video review.
Hintz is tied with defenseman Thomas Harley for second on the Stars in postseason scoring with 11 points (five goals, six assists). The all-Finnish line of Hintz between Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantanen is the only one that’s been producing this spring, so losing him could severely damage the Stars’ hopes of avenging last year’s loss to the Oilers in the West Final.
Dallas coach Pete DeBoer had no update on the injury to Hintz but wasn’t happy about the decision to reduce Nurse’s penalty to a minor.
“Does anyone in this room think if Connor McDavid gets carried off the ice like that it’s not a five-minute major?” he responded when asked about the play.
DeBoer rearranged his lines before this game to try to get more offense. Taking away his No. 1 center would force him to do a lot more juggling before the puck drops Sunday afternoon.