EDMONTON, Alberta – For the Edmonton Oilers, the journey from worst to first in the Western Conference is complete. And now the chance at the Stanley Cup is the reward.
Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist in the opening period to get Edmonton going, Stuart Skinner stopped 34 shots for his hometown team and the Oilers capped an unlikely run to the Stanley Cup Final by defeating the Dallas Stars 2 to 1 on Sunday night.
Zach Hyman also scored – as did McDavid, on a power play in the first period – and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers, who won the Western Conference final in six games and will compete for the Cup for the first time since 2006.
They will head to Florida for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, a series set to open on Saturday night. The Panthers are playing in the title series for the third time after being defeated by Colorado in 1996 and losing to Vegas in five games last year.
“When the horn went off, it was the loudest I’ve ever heard it,” McDavid told Sportsnet amid the postgame celebration on the ice, as Edmonton fans chanted “We want the Cup” repeatedly. “Special place to play, honestly. So much history. And for those fans, it was great to hear their support.”
Mason Marchment scored midway through the third period and Jake Oettinger stopped eight shots for the Stars, who finished the regular season with the second-best record in the NHL – 113 points, just one behind the New York Rangers in the race for the Presidents. Trophy.
But the Stars, like the Rangers, let a 2-1 lead slip in the conference finals. Dallas scored five goals in Game 3 to take the series lead; the Stars scored four goals in total in the next three games.
Oettinger went to the bench with about 2:20 remaining, but the Stars made just two shots the rest of the way, their desperate attempts to tie the game and extend the series falling short.
“Proud of our group, proud of our fight, proud of our battle,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. You have to give credit to Edmonton. Their power play, especially in the last two games, was good, their goaltending was good when you get to this point in the year, and they were on the right side. hard to swallow.”
Just by reaching the Cup final, Edmonton did something truly extraordinary – reaching the title series after falling 10 points out of a playoff spot during the regular season. Entering games on Nov. 24, the Oilers were 5-12-1, 10 points behind Seattle and St. Louis for the final wild-card spot in the West and 19 points behind Vegas for the top seed in the conference.
Those days are long forgotten now.
That’s when the Oilers – a few weeks after Kris Knoblauch took over as head coach from Jay Woodcroft, who was sent off after a 3-9-1 start – went on an eight-game winning streak and began the long climb out of the NHL basement.
Starting with that eight-game winning streak, the Oilers – who had a 16-game winning streak shortly after the eight-game winning streak ended – were the best team in the NHL until the end of the regular season. They went 44-15-5 the rest of the way, leading the league in goals (239) and goal difference (plus-76) in that span.
And now, the final awaits. Just like the Panthers on Saturday night, the Oilers did not touch the conference championship trophy in their postgame celebration. It’s the biggest trophy they’re looking for.
“We’re not done here yet. This is just a step in the right direction for us,” said Mattias Ekholm of Edmonton.
Edmonton is simply the third team in NHL history reach the final after being 10 points or more out of a playoff spot; the others were Toronto in 1958-59 and St. Louis in 2018-19. The Blues won the Cup that season.
The Oilers made just three shots in the first period of Game 6. That was enough.
McDavid opened the scoring with a spectacular goal, cutting through traffic before beating Oettinger high up to take a 1-0 lead.
“Connor McDavid, doing Connor McDavid things,” Skinner said.
Added Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl: “There’s a player in the world who can make things like this happen.”
McDavid then found Hyman in the slot for another power-play score late in the first; the shots at that point were 6-3 Dallas, but the score was 2-0 Edmonton and the Oilers were on their way. The Oilers finished with just 10 shots on goal, the fewest by a team in a playoff victory since 1990.
“We hung in there. We did it,” McDavid said. “Everyone deserves it.”
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This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
