With Stars struggling to score, Oilers have a chance to wrap up West final in Game 5

Associated Press

a day ago

DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Stars are back home and on the verge of their season ending in the Western Conference final for the third year in a row — especially if they don't start scoring goals again like they did all season.
'We're generating chances, and it just hasn't been going in,' Stars forward Sam Steel said Wednesday. 'I don't think we can focus on that too much, or complain about how pucks aren't going in. We know the recipe and we're looking to get back to it.'
Dallas is back home for Game 5 on Thursday night, down 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers after scoring only two goals while losing three consecutive games.
For Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and the Oilers, this is their first chance at a series clincher. They are trying to advance to their second Stanley Cup Final in a row, and again eliminate the Stars on the way.
'We've got a heck of a series here against Dallas, and we have one more win to get too. If we're fortunate to get that last win, then we'll be preparing for that next team,' Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said when asked if there was any worry of his players peeking ahead. 'But right now, all our attention is on the Dallas Stars.'
Take out their five-goal outburst in the third period for a 6-3 win in Game 1, with three power-play goals in a 5 1/2-minute span, and the Stars have been outscored 16-3 the other 11 periods in this series. It is only the fourth time Edmonton has allowed a goal or less in three consecutive playoff games, and first since 2006.
This is the same Dallas team that ranked third in the NHL and matched Winnipeg atop the West with 3.35 goals a game in the regular season, and was shut out only once. The Stars have four shutout losses this postseason, including in Game 2 their last time at home.
Dallas star forward Mikko Rantanen has gone seven games without a goal since scoring nine in a six-game span over their first two rounds. His only longer postseason drought was in the first eight playoff games of his career, in 2018 and 2019 with Colorado.
'This is not the time of year to get frustrated, you're just going to reset, go back at it,' said Rantanen, who is set to play his 99th career playoff game Thursday. 'We know we're a good team, we just (need to) win one game.'
Done in 5?
Edmonton has the opportunity for its second consecutive series clincher in a Game 5 on the road, just eight nights after wrapping up the second round with a 1-0 overtime win at Vegas.
'Listen, give them credit. They're up 3-1, they found a way. This series could be 2-2 easily, too,' Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after his team arrived home Wednesday. 'You don't have to look any further than the Stanley Cup Finals last year. The team we're playing was down 3-0 and forced a Game 7. So we've got to win one game tomorrow night and then you know, kind of do or die in Edmonton in Game 6, and get a Game 7 back here at home.'
The Stars have had only one playoff series since 2006 that went fewer than six games. That was when they won the Western Conference final in five games over the DeBoer-coached Golden Knights in the 2020 playoffs.
This is Dallas' 23rd playoff series since losing five-game series against Colorado in consecutive opening rounds in 2004 and 2006. There were no playoffs in 2005 because of full-season lockout.
Missing Hyman
Hard-hitting Oilers forward Zach Hyman was scheduled for surgery for an undisclosed injury to his right arm. While not providing additional details on the nature of the injury, Knoblauch said Wednesday that Hyman is 'mostly likely done' for the remainder of the postseason.
Hyman's 111 hits are the most in the NHL playoffs by a big margin. The mainstay on superstar Connor McDavid's line had 11 points (five goals, including a game-winner, and six assists) in 15 playoffs games.
He got hurt midway through the first period of their 4-1 win in Game 4 on Tuesday night. Hyman out-stretched his arms to brace for what appeared to be a glancing hit from Stars forward Mason Marchment at Edmonton's blue line, then immediately dropped his stick and was favoring his right arm as he left the ice.
Oilers lighting the lamp
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has multiple points in all four West final games for the Oilers, the first NHL player in 35 years to do that in the round before the Stanley Cup Final. Wayne Gretzky is the only player with a five-game streak.
Nugent-Hopkins is one of seven Edmonton players with at least five goals this postseason. He has two goals and seven assists in the series against the Stars.
Even 40-year-old Corey Perry has six goals after his go-ahead power-play tally in Game 4 on Tuesday night. That matched the most by a player age 39 or older in a single postseason — and the first since Teemu Selanne in 2011 in Anaheim, when Perry was then his teammate there.
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