With a win, the Oilers will take a 2-1 series lead with more home cooking en route.
A defensive masterpiece.
The Edmonton Oilers will win Game 3 of the Western Conference Final this afternoon against the Dallas Stars per NHL 25.
The reigning Stanley Cup Final runner-ups defeated the Stars 1-0 on the simulation.
Connor McDavid had one goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lit the lamp for the Oilers. Zach Hyman also had two assists. Stuart Skinner made 20 saves in the win.
Matt Duchene and Miro Heiskanen each had three shots on goal for Dallas, but none hit the net. Jake Oettinger made 30 saves.
We assumed Roope Hintz would be out of the lineup, so we replaced him with Colin Blackwell, the hero from Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round series between Dallas and the Colorado Avalanche.
First Period
Through the first 9:08 of play, it was razor-thin between both teams. The Oilers held a 7-4 advantage in shots on goal. Mattias Janmark teed up a slap shot from the point and Oettinger made a beautiful glove save. On the following play, Skinner turned away Stars’ Lian Bichsel with the blocker when he snapped a wrister from the slot.
At the end of 20 minutes, not only was it scoreless, but both teams also nearly had identical shot totals. The Stars held a 9-8 lead in that category.
Second Period
3:11 into the second period, Edmonton went on their first power play when Heiskanen was sent to the penalty box for slashing McDavid on the hands. It turned out to be one of the most critical plays of the game. McDavid caught Heiskanen napping and took a pass unguarded by the left wing and had a clear lane to make a charge at Oettinger. Sensing this could be trouble, Heiskanen made a desperate lunge with his stick, but he ended up catching McDavid, and the refs were on it immediately. 79779
With 31 seconds left on the penalty kill, Edmonton benefitted off a lucky bounce that ended up bouncing towards the stick of their best player. Hyman fired a shot from the left circle that bounced off a Stars defenseman, and the puck recoiled to the right circle, where McDavid was ready for it. His eyes lit up, that killer instinct kicked in, and McDavid hammered it by Oettinger to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. And that would end up being the game-winner. You get so many of these bounces during a game and a split second to capitalize on it, and leave it to McDavid to get it done for Edmonton.
Dallas had plenty of scoring chances, but they had a very difficult time getting around a brick wall, and it wasn’t just Skinner. Mikko Rantanen carried the puck through the neutral zone with about 10 minutes to go in the period and dished a cross-ice feed to Esa Lindell, but Troy Stecher blocked the shot, and the puck went back the other way.
Dallas put some pressure on Skinner down the stretch of the period, but they got turned away in every instance.
The second period ended with Edmonton leading 1-0 and leading 21-15 in shots on goal.
Third Period
A turnover nearly gave Edmonton another goal, but Oettinger saved the day. It started when Duchene coughed up the puck in the Oilers defensive zone. Hyman recovered it and drove it down the ice before dropping a pass to McDavid, who sizzled one from the point. Oettinger made a pad save, but left a juicy rebound up for grabs before he dove across the crease to cover it up.
Dallas attempted to crash the net early in the period, but Skinner was just incredible between the pipes. He gloved a shot from Sam Steel and, on the subsequent play, gloved another shot from Cody Ceci that didn’t have as much mustard behind it.
The Stars pulled Oettinger with roughly 47 seconds left in the game, but they turned the puck over almost immediately after and nearly allowed an empty-netter. They recovered to give themselves another fighting chance, but Skinner denied Jamie Benn’s attempt to provide the equalizer with approximately 28 seconds remaining in regulation.
Nugent-Hopkins put the game away with an empty-net goal with 6.9 seconds left to end it.
If it plays out this way, the Oilers will take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 and that’s huge because they still have the home cooking advantage at Rogers Place.
As for real life, puck drop for today’s game is at 1 p.m. local time.