There’s a big difference in how the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers feel about the Western Conference final heading into Game 3.
Edmonton feels like it let a huge opportunity slip away early in this best-of-seven series. The Stars made another attempt at a comeback before heading on the road, where they have been very good all season.
“If you would have told me four or five days ago that we could come here and separate ourselves against Dallas … we would have accepted that,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Now it’s a little more bitter when you win the first one and lose the second one.”
Game 3 will be Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won in their only regular-season visit in November, before Knoblauch was even coaching there. They are an NHL-best 5-1 on the road this postseason and have won Games 3 and 4 on the road in each of the first two rounds while eliminating the last two Stanley Cup champions.
Mason Marchment scored the go-ahead goal at 3:41 of the third period Saturday night on a long-range shot by Ryan Suter, and the Stars won 3-1. It was the seventh straight time in the last three postseasons that they went into Game 2 coming off a loss — they’ve now won six of those games.
“There’s a lot of character here. You have a lot of young guys playing hard for us, the older ones, and a lot of old guys who are playing hard for the young guys,” said Suter, the 39-year-old defenseman whose 1,444 career regular-season games are the most for any active player without a Stanley Cup. “So everyone agreed. Nothing really affects us. You lose two, you find a win to come back. You have a bad period, you need a good one to go with it.”
Dallas took an early lead in Game 2 when captain Jamie Benn scored 3:39 into the first period, only for the Oilers to get revenge 44 seconds later when Connor Brown scored his first playoff goal in six years.
When the Stars went ahead on Marchment’s first goal since opening the playoffs, they made it difficult for even Edmonton to try and recover.
The Oilers had just five shots on goal in the third period and went nearly 12 minutes without a shot after falling behind. Dallas blocked seven shots and made 14 of its 31 shots after taking the lead.
Leon Draisaitl, who had points in each of Edmonton’s first 13 games this postseason, had just two shots on net. Connor McDavid scored just one, early in the game, after scoring the game-winner 32 seconds into double overtime in the series opener. The highest-scoring defenseman, Evan Bouchard, had three but also had nine attempts blocked.
“They are a good team and defend well. They’ve done a good job in the passing lanes and shooting lanes,” McDavid said.
“They’re obviously a good shot-blocking team, but I think we got our looks. I mean, I pressed the button… it will be a 2-2 game if we score. I’m not saying it’s just a chance. We had our look,” Mattias Ekholm said. “We’re playing well enough to win, but we still have another level of play.”
Edmonton went 11:43 without a shot on net until Jake Oettinger’s glove save on Ekhlom with 3:27 left. The defender was denied a long-range shot just 19 seconds later, and Oettinger made the last of his 28 saves against Bouchard.
Oettinger made 16 saves in a busy first period and withstood the late flurry while protecting the lead. His 22 career playoff wins rank second on the Stars’ career list, but are still half of Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Ed Belfour’s 44.
“You’d rather work than just sit around and suddenly have one-on-ones. Sometimes this is even more difficult, in games you get 16 shots and 16 chances compared to 40 shots,” Oettinger said. “You can never choose what kind of workload you get, but you just stay with it and feel good… Those are even easier than the ones with little work.”
