Despite all of the injuries, the Oilers continue to toy with the Stars.
Defense wins championships.
The Edmonton Oilers lost Zach Hyman in the first period after taking a hit from Mason Marchment. However, the Oilers still managed to dominate the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final on Tuesday night at Rogers Place.
With the victory, Edmonton takes a 3-1 series lead and puts Dallas on the brink of elimination for the third consecutive season in the WCF.
Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid had two assists apiece, and Stuart Skinner made 28 saves in a 4-1 Oilers victory over the Stars.
Jason Robertson scored the lone goal for Dallas, and Jake Oettinger stopped 31 of 33 shots.
First Period
Just over four minutes into the period, Dallas went on their first power play when John Klingberg was called for holding by wrapping his hands around Matt Duchene. The Stars, though, were unable to convert on the man advantage.
Nearly eight minutes into the period, Mikael Granlund broke free, charged down the right wing and fired a wrist shot, but Skinner denied it with the blocker.
Dallas tried to get something going on about a minute later, but when Seguin tried to set up a feed in the slot, Duchene missed the pass.
Edmonton went on the power play with just under 10 minutes to go in the first when Jamie Benn tripped Klingberg. The Oilers took a 1-0 lead when Draisaitl one-timed a shot from Nugent-Hopkins from the right circle.
With about 3:10 remaining in the period, McDavid turned over the puck when Cody Ceci poke-checked the puck away and managed to fire a shot on Skinner, but he made the save. Skinner initially didn’t know where the puck was, but his teammates prevented anyone from trying anything cute.
The Oilers went on the penalty kill with 7.6 seconds remaining in the period. After Jake Walman’s wrister was gloved by Oettinger, Vasily Podkolzin traded some blows with Esa Lindell along the boards. However, Podkolzin was the only one penalized.
Earlier in the period, Mason Marchment collided with winger Zach Hyman in center ice. The Oilers star immediately dropped his stick and appeared to favor his wrist. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
Second Period
After some entertaining back-and-forth hockey, Dallas went on the power play nearly six minutes into the period when Corey Perry was whistled for interference on Mikko Rantanen, which appeared to be a questionable call.
Dallas took advantage of it and tied the game at one when Robertson sniped one over Skinner’s blocker from the slot. However, Edmonton caught their own break when Marchment cleaned out Adam Henrique to earn himself an interference call. Nugent-Hopkins subsequently set up Perry for a back-door tap-in to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
The Stars went back on the power play when Mattias Janmark tripped Roope Hintz and sent him crashing into the boards. Edmonton managed to fend off Dallas’s electric power play. With 6:25 left in the frame, Dallas held a 25-20 edge in shots on net but were still down a goal.
Kapanen made an incredible sliding play to disrupt Dallas’ offensive attack with less than three minutes remaining on the board. Edmonton attempted to add an insurance marker but fanned on the opportunity.
Although Dallas remained down in the game, a key element to their success was in the faceoff circle. With a minute left in the frame, Dallas had won 24 of 32 draws.
Edmonton suffered a scare loss late in the period when Evander Kane appeared to be injured. His trainer appeared to be working on his neck on the bench. The forward has had an injury-plagued season. He had surgery to repair two torn hip adductor muscles, two hernias, and two torn lower abdominal muscles in September. He also had knee surgery on January, so one could understand why there would be some concern. Thankfully for Kane, he eventually returned to the bench.
Third Period
It was a neck-and-neck battle to begin the final period as both teams struggled to gain the upper hand. Edmonton’s Brett Kulak attempted to get something for Edmonton. He found a hole, drove the puck through the neutral zone, and tried a no-look pass in the slot, but the puck was deflected and went wide. Perry also had a chance to get his second goal of the game when he gained control of the puck near the left circle, but his shot missed wide right.
Despite the injury to Hyman, the Oilers’ most prolific hitter, Edmonton continued to be the physically stronger team. With 10 minutes to go in the period, the Oilers had a significant advantage in hits (43-18).
Edmonton went on the man advantage with five minutes left to go in the game when Mikael Granlund tripped Draisaitl. McDavid attempted to set up Perry down low, but the redirect went just wide of the net.
Dallas successfully killed off the penalty and subsequently pulled Oettinger from the net with 2:40 left in the game. Moments later, the puck went out of play. Eight seconds later, the Oilers scored on the empty net when Draisaitl won the draw in their defensive zone, and Kulak lobbed the puck out to center-ice, where Kapanen got control of the puck and tapped it in to make it 3-1. Adam Henrique added another empty-netter to seal the deal, a 4-1 victory.
“We knew they were going to be desperate,” Draisaitl said after the game. “I thought we handled the (adversity) okay.”
Takeaways
Losing Hyman could be a big hit for the Oilers, but if they can continue to play great defensive hockey like we’ve seen in these playoffs and down the stretch of the regular season, there’s a good chance, should they rematch the Florida Panthers, that they’ll emerge victorious. Of course, the Panthers are also dealing with a myriad of injuries, and they didn’t look so hot in Game 4 against Carolina without the likes of Sean Reinhart, Niko Mikkola, and A.J. Greer. Perhaps they were a little tired. The Oilers also had another injury scare earlier in the game with Kane.
Next Game
Can Edmonton clinch another berth to the Stanley Cup Final by knocking out their rivals on the road? We’ll find out when they square off against the Stars for potentially the final time this season on Thursday at American Airlines Center. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. local time.