Game 1 of the Western Conference Final didn’t go quite as well for the Edmonton Oilers as it did last year.
The Oilers got out to a 3-1 lead and appeared to have the game in cruise control, but the Dallas Stars stormed back with five goals in the third period, opening this rematch with a 6-3 victory.
Let’s go through what happened in Game 1.
As they’ve done for the past four games, the Oilers opened the scoring. After sustained zone time midway through the first, Leon Draisaitl came down from the point with the puck and beat Jake Oettinger blocker side for the 1-0 lead.
Things looked good for the Oilers late in the first period, as they kept up that zone pressure and got an offensive zone faceoff from an icing. Unfortunately, Draisaitl turned the puck over, allowing Tyler Seguin to get a breakaway. He made no mistake in beating Stuart Skinner.
The Oilers owned the second period. Just over six minutes into the middle frame, the puck took a fortunate bounce and landed on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ stick. The longest-tenured Oiler made no mistake in snapping it by Oettinger’s glove.
Under two minutes later, Evan Bouchard scored, but not with his patented Bouchbomb; instead, he let a simple wrister go from the faceoff dot, beating Oettinger for a 3-1 lead. Heading into the third period, all looked good.
Late in the second period, Brett Kulak took a late penalty that carried over into the third. It took just over 30 seconds for the Stars to bring it to within one, as Miro Heiskanen’s shot from the point beat a screened Skinner.
The Oilers took another penalty shortly after. Dallas scored again just over three minutes later, as Mikael Grandlund ripped it top shelf past Skinner, who was once again screened. Not great.
Another penalty, another Stars’ goal. Six minutes into the period, a shot from Skinner’s left side took a weird bounce, with the Oilers’ netminder losing it as the puck went to the other side of the net. Matt Duchene was able to squeak it by Skinner for the 4-3 lead.
The Stars put away the game with a rush chance with just under four minutes left. Bouchard made a bad pinch, Jake Walman mistimed a poke check, and Sam Steel’s shot went off Seguin in front of the net. The Stars added an empty-netter for the 6-3 victory.
Takeaways…
That was a frustrating loss. The Oilers were playing a perfect road game through two periods, and then they imploded. A big storyline heading into this series was the Stars’ special teams against the Oilers’ special teams. At the end of the day, that’s what sunk the Oilers.
The penalty kill looked good when they took their first penalty in the first period. However, allowing three consecutive goals in about six minutes to start the third is not how you win games. The Oilers have to stay disciplined, because they are the better team during five on five play.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ power play goal was the first time that the Oilers have scored a power play goal on the road. That’s a good sign, but their road penalty kill as noted, has been awful. They need Mattias Ekholm back in the worst way.
The Oilers’ depth carried them against the Vegas Golden Knights, but it didn’t show up in Game 1. The goal scorers were Leon Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, and Evan Bouchard, with Draisaitl picking up three points and McDavid two. Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse had the other two assists.
Stuart Skinner was a big reason why the Oilers won in five games against the Golden Knights, but that game was similar to his first two games against the Los Angeles Kings, allowing five goals on 27 shots. He needs to be better if the Oilers want any chance of winning this series.
The good news is that there are positives to take away from this game. Edmonton played two really good periods and dominated at even strength, outshooting the Stars 20-13 and owning a 62.89% expected goal share in the first and a 60.43% expected goal share in the second during five-on-five play. Keep that up, and it’ll help them make this a series.
Game 2 is on Friday at 6:00 PM MT, still in Dallas. Hopefully, they can close out the game if they have a lead.
