The Stars dominated almost the entire second period, putting a ton of pressure on the Oilers, eventually scoring and making it a one goal game. Less that 5 minutes later in the final seconds of the period, the Oilers maintained possession and Connor McDavid took over and scored his 2nd goal of the game to give Edmonton back their two goal lead.
That was the kind of game it was for the Dallas Stars and while they might have controlled play for much of the game, the Oilers were the more opportunistic team, buried their chances when they needed to and Stuart Skinner kept Edmonton in the game. This was Skinner's 4th win of the post-season and his first win where he allowed a goal. I will repeat this forever... goalies are weird.
Once again the Oilers depth was the story but unlike other games where we were talking about the efforts of the third and fourth lines, yesterday it was other top six forwards like Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who were critical in Edmonton's victory.
RNH now has 2 goals and 7 points in these first three games against the Stars, all of which have been multi point efforts. Nuge is the longest serving Oiler and always gets praise from the fanbase but he hasn't always been the most consistent playoff performer but he is playing some phenomenal hockey right now.
I forgot until it was brought up on Twitter that Hyman led the Oilers last season in the post-season in goals with 16. Prior to yesterday's game Hyman had 3 goals in 13 games but even though he wasn't appearing as much on the scoresheet he had been making impacts in different ways. Hyman had
59 hits in
73 games in the regular season...he has
109 in 14 playoff games. Absolutely bananas numbers. Hyman has been making his presence known and laying some damaging hits on every opponent he faces but yesterday he reminded the NHL that he was a 50+ goal scorer last season. Hyman scored a beautiful breakaway goal and an arguably more impressive tip in off a fantastic saucer pass by Kane.
Against both the Kings and Knights we discussed that McDavid was good but not "take over a game" good. That has not been the case against the Stars. McDavid has been everywhere in a positive way over these past three games and he is starting to shoot more too which just adds to the ways that he can kill an opponent. His goal in the final seconds of the second period was an absolute backbreaker for the Stars.
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Stuart Skinner. The Oilers starting goalie has had a rollercoaster of a season; his highs are elite and his lows are AHL level but when he is on his game he is a legitimate NHL starter. Skinner saved the Oilers in the 2nd period when the Stars were hounding them. Shots were 21-7 for Dallas in the 2nd and Skinner allowed only one goal. I would easily argue this performance by Skinner was far more impressive than any of his shutout performances thus far.
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Quick thoughts on the reffing. The Stars fans were rightly unhappy with the missed delay of game penalty on Kulak where the Oilers scored two goals immediately after. Shortly after that, the refs called a phantom high sticking call on Kapanen when Rantanen was hit by his own stick. As I have said throughout these playoffs, the refs are universally bad and there are missed calls on all sides. As a team you cannot control that, all you can control is how you respond. The Oilers were able to take advantage... the Stars were not.
I didn't love the Petrovic hit on Connor Brown. Below is a screenshot I took from the initial contact. Petrovic is a big guy at 6'5 compared to Brown at 6'0 but Petrovic does leave his feet to make contact. Brown would miss the remainder of the game and in practice today it looked like Arvidsson was in his spot.
Obviously it shouldn't have been a 5 minute major because we don't award majors every time a player gets hurt from a penalty but I do think it was a hit to the head and I wonder if we will see anything from the Department of Player Safety. I am willing to bet probably not.
It was a huge win by the Edmonton Oilers but this is still a good Stars team. Game 4 is a crucial game for the Oilers as a win puts them firmly in the driver seat whereas a loss ties the series with the Stars potentially having the opportunity to play two more home games. Oilers fans should be praying for a Hurricanes win to try and stall what appears to be an inevitable Panthers team.
Thanks for reading.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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