The Oilers had less shots, but they made theirs count.
If you hadn’t looked at the final score, you could have guessed that the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night at Rogers Place, but you would have guessed wrong.
Despite getting outshot 36-24, the Oilers destroyed Dallas in a 6-1 thrashing on home ice in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final.
Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman scored twice for Edmonton. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also had three assists and nearly scored two goals of his own, but hit the post twice. Evander Kane also posted two assists for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner made 35 saves.
Jason Robertson scored the lone goal for Dallas. Lian Bichsel was initially credited with the goal, but after an extended review, the officials ruled that Robertson tipped his shot. Jake Oettinger had an uncharacteristically rough outing and made just 18 stops.
The Oilers take a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-seven series into Game 4.
First Period
About six-and-a-half minutes into the opening frame, Nugent Hopkins accepted a cross-ice feed and drove the puck through the neutral zone before firing a blistering wrist shot from the left circle. Oettinger didn’t make the save with his blocker but with his arm. With that said, it was a scintillating arm save from the Stars’ netminder. Draisaitl took the puck around the net on the next play and attempted to score on the wraparound, but his backhanded shot went wide.
With 5:58 remaining in the first, the Oilers got away with a holding penalty moments before Nugent-Hopkins completed a drop pass to Evan Bouchard before he unloaded a slap shot from the point that went off the post and in to put Edmonton up 1-0.
36 seconds later, Nugent-Hopkins was at the forefront again, feeding McDavid a one-timer in the slot to make it a 2-0 game.
With 2.6 seconds remaining in the period, Kasperi Kapanen was called for high-sticking. The replay showed Kapanen lifting Mikko Rantanen’s stick, but when he did that, Rantanen’s own stick came up and hit him in the face. Despite a review by the officials, they still deemed Kapanen responsible for the incident.
Second Period
Rantanen destroyed a one-timer to start the third period, but it rang off the post. Sam Steel also attempted to punch one in from the slot, but the calm and poise of Stuart Skinner was not to be denied, as he turned away both the initial shot and the rebound that followed.
Edmonton went the other way on the following play, and Nugent-Hopkins rang one off the post after taking a cross-ice feed. After nearly missing on a goal, Nugent-Hopkins lost an edge and crashed into the boards with some help from Lian Bichsel, but he got up and continued on.
10:36 into the period, Bichsel found himself in trouble after tripping Corey Perry to put the Oilers on the power play. However, Edmonton couldn’t get anything initially. With 18 seconds to go on the power play, Steel tripped Draisaitl to put the Oilers on a brief 5-on-3 man advantage. The Dallas penalty kill, known for being one of the best in the NHL, killed off both penalties. After doing away with the infractions, the Stars made it a one-goal game after Bichsel initially scored his first career postseason goal after blasting a shot from the point off a feed from Rantanen that beat Skinner five-hole. The goal came after Skinner turned away multiple shots, but his defense could not clear the puck, which allowed Rantanen to reset and look for options behind the net, which he did successfully. Before the start of the third period, the officials would reverse the original call and rule that Robertson tipped the shot on the way in. As a result, Bichsel would have to wait a bit longer to score his first playoff goal.
McDavid scored his second of the game with 19 seconds remaining in the period. After the officials missed a hooking call on Cody Ceci, McDavid reset and sniped one from the right circle by Oettinger to give Edmonton a two-goal lead.
Earlier in the period, Connor Brown took a massive shoulder check from Alex Petrovic right on the chin. He went to the dressing room and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
Third Period
3:25 into the period, Hyman went on a breakaway after taking a long lead pass from Nugent-Hopkins and beat Oettinger to make it a 4-1 lead. For Nugent-Hopkins, it was his third assist in the game. He also hit the post twice himself at this point. And if those shots had just been a few inches the other way, the Oilers could have been talking about a 6-1 lead.
Hyman scored his second of the game when he tapped in a pass from Kane that flew over the stick of a diving Lindell. It was the third unanswered goal for the Oilers and the second in a row from Hyman.
With just under five minutes left in regulation, Vasiliy Podkolzin was sent to the box for tripping Thomas Harley, but it was more of a slash. Harley was subsequently penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after he checked Hyman into the boards after a whistle. This resulted in some 4-4 play before Edmonton went on the power play. As soon as that happened, Klingberg made it 6-1 when he fired a wrist shot through a screen to continue the bleeding.
Takeaways
Dallas will need to figure out a way to score goals or this series is effectively over. From an aesthetic standpoint and a hockey perspective, this was their best performance of the series, and they still got destroyed. That’s not going to give your team a lot of confidence.
Game 4 takes place Tuesday night. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. local time.