Postgame Beats: Edmonton Wins Three in a Row, Again

This felt far too familiar

This game felt a lot like Game 6 last year against Edmonton, when Dallas also mustered a huge, huge push, only to score a single goal for their troubles.

The Oilers are very good, clearly. Neither team scored a 5-on-5 goal in this game, which is crazy when you look at how many looks Dallas generated in the first period, and how good Edmonton has been at countering in this series.

Jason Robertson scored a huge goal for the Stars, but they couldn’t build on it, giving the lead right back. Dallas hasn’t had a lead in this series outside of the third period of Game 1, and it feels like it.

Dallas couldn’t score on three other power plays tonight, while Edmonton only needed two to win the game. I’m sure you’ve decided who’s to blame, but in all honesty, the Stars just looked tired after they gave up that second goal.

For the second year in a row, Stuart Skinner didn’t really look otherworldly or anything, but ask Chris Osgood about how highly goalies can be regarded when the team in front of them takes care of business. Dallas has scored just two goals in their last three games. You’re going to lose a lot of playoff series when your offense dries up to that degree, and Dallas now has to run the table in Games 5 and beyond if they want to avoid that fate.

We’ll talk more tomorrow. Here’s what happened tonight.

Lineups

With Roope Hintz back, the Stars began the game with this lineup:

Robertson-Hintz -Rantanen
Marchment-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Johnston-Granlund
Bäck-Steel-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Ceci
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger

Evgenii Dadononv was a healthy scratch for the first time in the playoffs, which is as much a testament to the work of Bäck and Blackwell to become so indispensable as it is a clear sign that Pete DeBoer wants to be able to roll that fourth line again.

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Edmonton went with these lines:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Perry
Kane - Henrique - Kapanen
Frederic - Janmark - Arvidsson

Kulak - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Walman - Klingberg

Skinner

Mattias Ekholm appears to be close to returning, but has not quite made it back yet. Meanwhile, Corey Perry moved up the lineup (as he’s often done this year), while Viktor Arvidsson came in for Connor Brown, who was still injured after taking a huge hit from Alex Petrovic in Game 3.

First Period

DeBoer began with his fourth line, reiterating the reality that Evgenii Dadonov was scratched in order to preserve that line’s tone-setting ability. Would they play the hits, though? This has been a weird musical pun.

Oettinger had to make a huge save on Zach Hyman after a Ceci turnover behind the net to Connor McDavid, reminding Dallas once again that even the smallest unforced errors could easily be punished.

Corey Perry had a tough moment of his own when he backed into Mikael Granlund, who instinctively put his stick up to protect himself from Perry’s big frame, sending the forward down in some distress.

The Duchene line then came out and once again created some scoring chances immediately, but with nothing beating Skinner. The pressure did result in an Edmonton penalty on Klingberg, however, and Dallas had a lengthy set on the delayed call with some more looks, but nothing in the net.

The power play looked to set up Rantanen for a one-timer quickly, and he did get one off from a Hintz setup that nicked the outside of the top corner of the net. They do not award style points on power plays, however, and Dallas wouldn’t have earned any regardless, as the final 90 seconds of the early chance to grab the lead petered out pretty listlessly.

Cody Ceci had a great look after the power play, when a Leon Draisaitl rush one direction got turned over by Dallas and sent back down the ice, where Ceci got a good look on a patient feed from Rantanen, but Ceci isn’t exactly notorious for burying those chances, and he didn’t revamp his reputation this time, either.

Wyatt Johnston got a rush chance (though not with numbers) that he tested Skinner with, and then Trent Frederic got a great look where he cut in alone on a 3-on-2 and tried to beat Oettinger far side, but he is definitely one of the players Dallas would have chosen to get that chance for Edmonton, and he showed why.

The back-and-forth continued with the Duchene line getting a 2-on-1 with Seguin on the wrong side of the ice to shoot a Duchene pass, and he tried a return feed that Duchene couldn’t do much with. But the line did generate more looks, but as ever, without reward.

Zach Hyman had to leave the bench after his arm got caught by a Marchment hit at the blue line after Hyman had dumped the puck along the boards.

Without Hyman, Edmonton got their own first power play when Jamie Benn got his stick into Klingberg’s skates on the forecheck, cutting down the defenseman with a pretty unnecessary penalty 200 feet from his own net.

And Edmonton doesn’t need Hyman when they have Leon Draisaitl’s ability to score goals from ridiculous angles, and he did so once again, sapping Dallas of all the momentum generated by their early, desperate start with a trademark one-timer that his elite ability has beaten goalies with for years, when he’s given the space to execute it.

And just like that, Dallas was down 1-0 for the 14th time in 17 games this postseason.

Edmonton was also continuing to poke Dallas where it hurt, as Evan Bouchard whacked Roope Hintz’s left skate (after Nurse injured Hintz’s same foot two games prior) on Hintz’s way off the ice. It was a statement from Edmonton, daring Dallas to do something about their antagonizing play.

Dallas continued its strong start in terms of pressure, and Marchment got a nice little one-timer on a shift with the fourth line, but it found Skinner’s pad with five minutes left in the period.

Cody Ceci then continued the Stars’ secret plan (Operation Cody) when he capitalized on an Edmonton giveaway and joined the rush, getting a feed that he tried to put through Skinner’s pads from the circle, but Skinner sealed the barn door.

After yet another great shift without a goal from the Duchene line, Jake Oettinger had to stop Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid on two successive chances from great scoring areas. But the Stars goaltender got a blocker on Bouchard’s shot from the slot, and he kept the five-hole shut from McDavid just as help was getting back.

After Oettinger made a good stop on an Edmonton rush, Vasily Podkolzin got nailed with a roughing penalty for going after Esa Lindell after the whistles. With only 7.6 seconds left in the period, odds were slim for Dallas to capitalize, and despite a nice little one-timer by Rantanen off a won face-off, they ended up going to the room having put 17 pucks on Stuart Skinner and none past him, but with most of a power play awaiting them at the start of the next period.

During the first intermission, it was announced that Zach Hyman would not return to the game after this hit from Marchment.

Second Period

Dallas didn’t create any great chances on their power play, looking largely impatient. Disaster almost struck when McDavid nearly set up Evan Bouchard shorthanded for a dangerous look off a turnover, but Harley stayed calm and poked away the pass to prevent anything from developing.

Corey Perry then tried to do his best Brock Nelson impression, but his pick was much more of a moving screen, and Rantanen drove hard into him, leaving the officials with little choice but to make the call.

It would be a big one, too, as Dallas finally got their power play going, generating some really consistent looks for the first time in three tries. And after a couple of scrambles where Skinner lost track of the puck (and his net), the Stars finally outpassed the penalty kill, and Jason Robertson cut into the middle of the low slot and ripped a puck into a fair bit of space on Skinner’s blocker side for a critical game-tying goal.

Mason Marchment then took an interference penalty of his own (again in the offensive zone) when he laid a pretty stiff check on Adam Henrique, presumably because he thought Henrique was involved in a puck battle. Henrique was simply defending, however, and it looked like a rather blatant penalty, as Marchment put him onto the ice.

On the power play, Connor McDavid got the puck down low to Nugent-Hopkins, and Ceci had to make a choice: go down to block the pass, or try to play the puck. Ceci went down at first, but just as he got up to attack the puck, Nugent-Hopkins slipped the pass under his raised stick and right to Perry on the back door for an easy dunk, and it was 2-1 for Edmonton.

Dallas would get a power play right after that on a rush from Hintz that caught Janmark reaching in with his stick, however. And the second power play unit had to start the set, and Robertson’s confidence was soaring. He had a couple of looks, but nothing that quite matched the Grade-AA look he got on his goal, and the Oilers would get through the two minutes without giving up the lead.

Thomas Harley had a coast-to-coast rush through everybody that nearly set up Steel for a goal, but his shot would get blocked. You could see everyone on Dallas looking to be the one to make the next big play, but who would it be, and for which team? At that point, it felt like the first team to score a 5-on-5 goal was going to win the game.

Evander Kane left for the locker room late in the second period after appearing to tweak his neck, and the Oilers faced the prospect of being down to 10 forwards. But when you have a lead going into the third period, everyone seems to find another gear. And frankly, the Stars looked like the more tired team going into the intermission.

They would need to find their legs before the biggest period of the series—so far.

Third Period

The third period started inauspiciously, with a Wyatt Johnston turnover high int he zone leading to a 2-on-1 for Draisaitl, only for Heiskanen to make a brilliant block to negate the entire rush.

The Stars turned over more pucks in their own zone, with Edmonton lurking just outside the blue line at every turn, waiting to pounce on every breakout pass and take it right back down the ice. And Oettinger would had to make a big save on Podkolzin after another block attempt bounced right to him for a backhand try in the guts of the high-danger zone.

The first five minutes of the third saw Dallas collapsing in front of their net far more often than getting the puck near the other end, and it was a sobering reminder of the reality that has been Edmonton’s much-improved defensive structure since Kris Knoblauch’s arrival a year and a half ago.

Lian Bichsel made an underrated recovery after making a play at one end and getting back just in time to cancel out a 2-on-1 pass at the other. It was the sort of effort Dallas needed in the most important period of their playoff run thus far, but the shots on goal mounted to 8-1 for Edmonton, showing that the effort needed to start taking place further up the ice.

With 9:20 to go, an Oilers shot deflected up into the netting behind the Stars’ goal, and it was gut-check time. Edmonton was refuting every Dallas effort to set up shop in the offensive zone, and time was ticking away with far too little push coming from the Stars.

Dallas finally got a break when a clearance went to Lindell at the high point, and a puck back down low went to Robertson, who nearly tucked a wrap-around before Skinner could seal the post. It would be the only Dallas chance for the next few minutes, as Edmonton continued their neutral zone clinic.

Oettinger made a massive stop on Evander Kane with six minutes to play when Dallas’s forwards were slow coming back to pick up Edmonton’s skaters in transition, robbing the winger point-blank to keep Dallas’s hopes alive, such as they were.

Benn was put in Marchment’s spot with Duchene and Seguin right after that, and it generated something like an actual threat for Dallas, ending with a Seguin shot from distance that Skinner hung onto. It was some hope, but the ensuing offensive-zone face-off would not keep that hope alive, as Granlund got overzealous with a poke at a puck, catching Draisaitl’s skates to put Edmonton on the power play with 5:00 to go.

Dallas defended the first half of the penalty fairly well, though Perry narrowly missed his second back-door tip of the game, with this pass coming a bit hotter than the other one. Draisaitl then tried to beat Oettinger short side high, but the goalie held his ground, and the Stars had 1:02 left to kill before their final push, if they could hang on that long. But Edmonton grew cautious at that point, and it made Dallas’s job easier, such as it was.

The penalty was killed, and Dallas pulled Oettinger just as a puck got deflected up behind Skinner for an offensive-zone face-off. In all likelihood, this would be the game, and possibly the season.

Dallas would then proceed to lose the face-off and get burned up ice immediately for an empty-net goal that took care of any last-ditch comeback before it really started.

It was a tough, tough sequence, but overall, it was probably the deserved result. Dallas had two outstanding periods in the last two games of this series, but they didn’t make up ground on Edmonton in either one. And when your best isn’t good enough, things all start to slip away, as they did for Dallas, who has now lost three games in a row to Edmonton in two straight postseasons.

Edmonton added a fourth empty-netter, if you care. I suspect you don’t. Anyway, we’ll have more reflections later, but for now, the Stars will have to bring something pretty darn special on home ice Thursday if they want to start building some belief with a 3-1 series deficit.