EDMONTON, Alberta – Jason Robertson completed his first career playoff hat trick midway through the third period as the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Final. NHL.
Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen, in an empty net, scored Dallas’ other goal. Jake Oettinger made 26 saves. Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn had two assists each.
“You want to help the team win, you want to score goals,” said Robertson, who hadn’t scored since Game 6 of the first round. “Scoring one gives confidence… like a domino effect.”
Connor McDavid, with a goal and an assist that earned him 100 career playoff points, Zach Hyman and Adam Henrique scored for Edmonton, which got 17 saves from Stuart Skinner.
“A great start,” McDavid said. “I’m not sure where those 10, 15 minutes are coming from, but it’s as bad as it was during the playoffs.”
Dallas, which reestablished home-field advantage with the win and owned the league’s best road record in the regular season, is now 6-1 in the playoffs away from the American Airlines Center.
The Stars saw the return of Hintz, who had not suited up since suffering an upper-body injury in Game 4 of the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.
“We destroyed everything while (Hintz) was out of the lineup,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t as pretty as it was tonight when he was out, but we still found ways. The guys still found ways to contribute without a major player.
“That’s what I’m most proud of. It was great that he was back tonight, but I’m really proud of how we handled his absence.”
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series will be on Wednesday night.
Henrique returned to the team after missing seven of Edmonton’s last eight games with a suspected ankle injury. Hintz, the Stars’ No. 1 center, was also back after a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
“You never know what a player is going to bring after a period of not playing,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Monday after the loss. “Normally it’s very difficult for a player to find his game, but I don’t think he had any problems.
“He made a lot of beautiful plays, obviously with goals. I thought he was really good in the faceoff and it was good to have him.”
After the Oilers dominated the first 20 minutes and the Stars regained momentum in the second period, Robertson tied it 3-3 at 11:54 of the third on a play that went past Skinner.
Edmonton pulled the goalie late in the game trying to force overtime, but Heiskanen iced it into an empty net with 1:55 left in regulation.
The Oilers came out flying first inside a deafening Rogers Place.
McDavid came out of the corner and fired a shot past Hyman just 2:02 into the game as he battled with Stars defenseman Ryan Suter for position in front for his NHL-leading 13th goal of the playoffs.
The Oilers went ahead 2-0 at 7:37 when blueliner Mattias Ekholm circled the Stars’ net and fired a pass to McDavid, who won a battle with Seguin for the puck in the box for the fourth superstar captain – and second of the series after his double overtime goal in game 1.
The Stars responded impressively coming out of halftime.
Robertson hit his fourth at 5:35 of the second on a one-timer past Skinner’s ear, before hitting another past the Edmonton goalie at 8:05 as Dallas came in waves against the disjointed and flat home team.
Johnston then made it 3-2 just 63 seconds later to complete the barrage with his eighth goal in front of a stunned crowd.
The three goals in 3:33 were the quickest trio in Dallas postseason history since moving to Texas in 1993.
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