A day after the Florida Panthers punched their ticket into the Stanley Cup Finals, the Edmonton Oilers hope to do the same and end their series against the Dallas Stars on Sunday night.
The puck drops at 8:00 pm EST.
After Game 3, the doubts around the Oilers were swirling, and everyone counted the series over, with the Stars heading to the finals. Goaltending was questionable, depth was non-existent, and their top players weren’t doing enough.
Well, a two-game winning streak, including a 3-1 win on the road on Friday, has erased all of that, and the Oilers are just one win away.
Perfect Two Games For the Oilers
Ok, one game and 55 minutes. However petty we want to get with the details, the Oilers have unlocked something here in the last five days.
The lack of depth has been a massive point of conversation. On this winning streak, they have outscored Dallas 8-3. Of those eight goals, only one has been by their big three(McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman).
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored two goals on Friday, while McLeod and Janmark finally contributed in Game 4. Connor Brown scored his first goal of the playoffs earlier in the series, but he’s been moving his feet very well, and his hard work has paid off on both ends of the ice.
In the first three games, the Stars scored 10 goals, since then only three, with Wyatt Johnston scoring two of them. Now it’s Dallas whose depth has gone quiet.
The Oilers have done a terrific job of clogging up the neutral zone and frustrating the Stars’ offensive zone entries. When the Stars get into the Oilers zone, most chances are kept to the outside, with the high-danger chances being minimal.
There’s no debating the shakiness goaltender Skinner has shown this spring, so keeping the shots and shot quality down benefits everybody.
It still remains true that they need a big night from their horses. Even though McDavid has 29 points, only four of them are goals. More shooting from him is always welcomed. Draisaitl has 10, and Hyman has a playoff-high 13.
However, with the welcome offensive the rest of the lineup has added the last couple of games, and the pressure has lifted off of that top line a little bit, helping them relax and do what they do best.
Is the Armor Starting to Crack in Dallas?
There’s no other way to slice it. Friday night’s performance was incredibly disappointing for the Dallas Stars. Home-ice advantage, the beginning of the weekend, and the Mavericks just won their own Western Conference Final. The team started flat and ended flat, never really being in that game.
They finished the game with 20 shots, but barely hit double digits by the end of the second period. Wyatt Johnston didn’t score their first and only goal of the game until six minutes left in the period, and overall the team looked lifeless.
Tanev playing on one foot doesn’t help anything, but the overall competitive level doesn’t fall on Tanev.
If you’re Dallas, you might approach it this way: You were awful in Game 5, and you only lost 3-1. You were down 2-0 in Game 1 and lost in overtime, and in Game 4, you were up 2-0 before home ice boosted the Oilers to victory. You have not played your best hockey, yet the series is 3-2, and there’s a game at home on Tuesday if you want to be in it.
They have the depth, they have the scoring, they have the goaltending. All they have to do is go out and win a hockey game.
What to Expect in Game 6
The city of Edmonton is going crazy right now from in the arena, to the watch party outside, to the bars, and everything in between. The best player in the world is one win away from his first Stanley Cup Final and everyone in Canada will be watching.
In Game 3, the fans generated an energy boost that propelled the Oilers to their best first period of the series. In the second, however, the Stars took over the game and won it handily. It will be interesting to see how the environment plays into this Game.
Both teams have two-game winning streaks in this series. The way it’s played out so far, it’s fair to expect the Stars to even it up tonight.
As a neutral observer, I’d love to see it. But the boys in Edmonton, including their fanbase, will have something to say about that.
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About The Author
Marc Sautter is a self-proclaimed sports addict, with the NHL being his specialty. After being a sports fan from afar, Marc made a career change in his 30s to cover sports through journalism and podcasting. His daily NHL preview and betting show “Pucks Across Borders” airs every weekday morning. In addition to hockey, you can read his work on the Canadian Football League all summer on Total Apex Sports.
