Oilers rally to even conference final with Stars

Source: The New York Times
Author: Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Mark Lazerus

EDMONTON -- The Western Conference final is down to a best of three.

The new-look Edmonton Oilers overcame a dreadful start, which saw them allow two goals before the game was six minutes old, to even their matchup with the Dallas Stars thanks to a 5-2 win.

The Oilers got offense from throughout the lineup in their most well-rounded effort of the series -- save for the first half of the opening period.

This game was never in doubt after the Oilers took the lead and doubled it in a 49-second span late in the middle frame.

Kris Knoblauch didn't just tinker with his lineup. The Oilers coach swapped out three players and left just his top line and No. 1 defense pairing alone.

Out came winger Warren Foegele, center Sam Carrick and defenseman Vincent Desharnais -- on his birthday, no less. In their places were Corey Perry, Ryan McLeod and Philip Broberg -- one player who'd been scratched for the last five games, another who sat out Game 3 and the last tasked with making his 2024 playoff debut.

Their additions vastly altered the lineup's complexion.

Naturally, given the sheer volume of changes, some worked better than others.

The good: McLeod scored the Oilers' first goal off a Perry rebound -- the first point of the playoffs for both players. The bad: Nurse and Kulak were on the ice for both Stars goals. Nurse did chip in with a secondary helper on McLeod's marker.

One game after the Oilers came out red hot only to cede momentum and the lead to the Stars, the roles were reversed in Game 4. Dallas was all over Edmonton to start, with Wyatt Johnston scoring 58 seconds into the game and Esa Lindell banking a point shot off Nurse's backside and past Stuart Skinner to make it 2-0 just 5:29 into the game. At that point, Dallas had all five shots on goal and the Oilers looked lost.

But the Oilers found the same resilience that Dallas found in Game 3, roaring back to tie the game on goals by McLeod (pouncing when Ryan Suter crashed into Jake Oettinger, causing the goalie to lose control of the puck as he attempted to freeze it) and Evan Bouchard (off a pass-off-the-pads shot by Connor McDavid). At that point, the Oilers had nine straight shots on goal. The Oilers came tantalizingly close to taking the lead on a power play late in the period, but Oettinger's stick was lying in the goal with the paddle sticking out, and McDavid's shot from the corner of the goalmouth hit the paddle and somehow stayed out.

Before the game, neither team could really explain how Game 3 had such wild momentum swings. That's just hockey.

"The game plan every game is to play how we played our last 40 (in Game 3) for 60," Stars defenseman Chris Tanev said before the game. "But you're going to experience highs and lows throughout the game. That's just how the game works."

A Ryan holding call on Matt Duchene midway through the second period should have put the Oilers on their heels. After all, it put the Stars to their first power play of the game.

The Oilers had other ideas.

It was Ryan's linemates who bailed him out by scoring a beautiful two-on-one goal that saw Brown set up the former Star Janmark for his second tally of the playoffs. Unbelievably, that short-handed marker was the first, and only, special teams goal of the series by either team.

Pretty good. But that wasn't all.

Just 10 seconds after the Oilers killed their 40th penalty of 43 opportunities of the playoffs -- a 93 percent success rate -- Draisaitl and Zach Hyman finished off a give-and-go rush at 15:22 to extend Edmonton's lead to two.

The pair of goals came 49 seconds apart. That was the turning point.

Oh, and the Oilers killed off a late Hyman penalty to up their PK efficiency to 93.2 percent. It deserves so much credit for the Oilers getting this far in the playoffs.

The start of the game couldn't have gone much worse for the Oilers, which meant their goaltender bore the brunt of the issues.

Skinner allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced, coming off the sticks of Johnston and Lindell, respectively. One was an unfettered rush chance that was ripped over his glove and the other was a point shot that appeared to be going wide before hitting Nurse in the pants.

The Johnston marker came on the first shot of the game. That marked the third time in the playoffs Skinner has allowed such a goal -- following the second game of the opening-round series and on Saturday in Dallas.

It felt like things were going to come off the rails when Lindell doubled the lead. But Skinner shut the door from there.

Knoblauch never seriously considered starting Calvin Pickard after Skinner allowed four goals on 21 shots in Game 3 -- including Jason Robertson's iffy winner. Of all the coach's moves, the one he didn't make might have been his best as Skinner stopped 20 shots in the win.

Dallas not only lost the lead, it lost one of its most critical players when Tanev took a Kane shot off the outside of his right foot about 12 minutes into the second period. Tanev hobbled down the tunnel and missed the rest of the game.

Tanev, Dallas' big addition at the trade deadline, has been a lockdown defender for the Stars. Through 16 playoff games, he had only been on the ice for nine goals-against while frequently drawing the toughest assignments against the likes of Vegas' Jack Eichel, Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Edmonton's McDavid. If Tanev misses any time, it would be a big blow for Dallas. Jani Hakanpaa, ostensibly the next man up, hasn't played since March 16 with a lower-body injury.