There’s a big difference in the opinions of the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers on the Western Conference finals going into Game 3 at all.
Edmonton feels it missed a big opportunity early in this best-of-seven series. The Stars had another recovery effort before hitting the road, where they have been so good all season.
“If you would have told me four or five days ago that we could come here and face Dallas … we would have accepted that,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Now it’s a little bit more bitter if you win the first one and lose the second one.”
Game 3 is Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won 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, winning Games 3 and 4 on the road in each of the first two rounds, while knocking out the past two Stanley Cup champions.
Mason Marchment scored the go-ahead goal 3:41 into the third period on a long shot from Ryan Suter, and the Stars recorded a 3-1 victory. It was the seventh straight time in the past three postseasons that they entered Game 2 on the back of a loss – they have now won six of those games.
“There’s a lot of character here. You have a lot of young guys playing hard for us, old guys, and a lot of old guys playing hard for the young guys,” said Suter, the 39-year-old defenseman whose 1,444 regular-season games have been played. the most for any active player without a Stanley Cup. “So just everyone joined in. Nothing really phases us. If you leave two behind, you find a win and you come back. You have a bad period, you have to have a good one to follow up.”
Dallas took the initial lead in Game 2 when captain Jamie Benn scored 3:39 into the first period, but the Oilers tied it 44 seconds later when Connor Brown scored his first playoff goal in six years.
When the Stars took the lead on Marchment’s first goal since the playoff opener, they made it difficult for Edmonton to even attempt a comeback.
The Oilers had just five shots on goal in the third period and went nearly 12 minutes without one after falling behind. Dallas blocked seven shots and scored 14 of 31 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 got just one, early in the game, after scoring the winning goal 32 seconds into double overtime of the series opener. High-scoring defenseman Evan Bouchard had three, but also had nine attempts blocked.
“They’re a good team and they defend well. They did a good job getting into the passing lanes and shooting lanes,” McDavid said.
“They’re obviously a good shot-blocking team, but I think we had our looks. I mean, I press the button… if we score it’s a 2-2 game. I’m not saying it’s just one chance. We had our looks,” said Mattias Ekholm. “We’re playing well enough to win, but we still have another level to our game.”
Edmonton had gone 11:43 without a shot on net until Jake Oettinger’s sweeping glove save on Ekhlom with 3:27 left. Just 19 seconds later, the defender was denied a long-range shot, with Oettinger making the last of his 28 saves against Bouchard.
Oettinger had 16 saves in a busy first period and withstood that final onslaught while protecting the lead. His 22 career playoff wins rank second only on the Stars’ career list, but still half of Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Ed Belfour’s 44.
“You’d rather get work than just sit there and all of a sudden you’re getting 2-on-1 breakouts. Sometimes those are even harder, in the games you get sixteen shots and sixteen chances compared to forty shots,” Oettinger said. “You never get to choose what kind of work you get, but you just stay in it and feel good. … Those are even easier than the ones that don’t have a lot of work.”
