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First blood in the Western Conference Final is green.
The Edmonton Oilers opened the third round of the playoffs by making it perfectly clear that this isn’t going to be the kind of Dallas romp that most experts predicted, taking down the Central Division champions 3-2 in double overtime.
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The Oilers said from the start they’re good enough to win this thing, now they’ve proven it after Connor McDavid’s game winner 32 seconds into the extra period.
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Game 1 was classic Edmonton-Dallas and came down one shot in a series opener with virtually nothing separating the two best teams in the conference.
The Oilers were a profile in resilience, surviving a slow first period, a late Dallas comeback and a potentially catastrophic double-minor penalty in overtime to take a 1-0 series lead.
GOOD SIGNS
The concerns about the Oilers heading into this series — depth and goaltending — both held up in nicely in Game 1. Edmonton’s third and fourth lines generated momentum, Stuart Skinner held up his end of the bargain against Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger and from there Edmonton’s top players showed they could once again be counted on in the playoffs.
But after Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman made it 2-0 Edmonton in the second period, the Stars showed some mettle of their own coming back to tie it on a pair of goals from Tyler Sequin, the second one coming with 3:23 left in the third period, to force overtime.
PK HEROICS
McDavid’s stick is usually the reason the Oilers win games, but it almost cost them on Thursday.
McDavid took a double-minor 17 seconds into overtime for high-sticking Matt Duchene on the faceoff, putting Edmonton on the defensive for four agonizing minutes.
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But the Oilers penalty killers turned in a heroic performance to keep Dallas from ending the game.
Edmonton’s penalty killing remains a highlight of their playoff run. Two kills in the first period, another in the second and then four minutes in OT gives them 19-straight kills over the last five games.
SECOND LIFE
Edmonton didn’t get its fourth shot of the game until the 58-second mark of the second period, but it went in. Draisaitl opened the scoring and extended his playoff points streak to 13 games, tying Mark Messier and Bobby Orr for the third-longest post-season run in NHL history.
Then Hyman out-battled two Dallas defenders three minutes later to make it 2-0 Oilers and the underdogs were off and running.
But the Stars caught them. They closed it to 2-1 after 40 minutes when Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak turned the puck over right in front of his own net and then couldn’t control Tyler Seguin on the ensuing rebound.
After that, it was just a matter of Edmonton getting their lead to the finish line. They got off to a great start, holding the Stars to four shots through the first 16 minutes, but Seguin got behind Vincent Desharnais and buried the easy tying goal into a wide open net at 16:37.
REVENGE SERVED COLD
It took 27 years, but the Stars finally got even for Curtis Joseph’s epic overtime save on Joe Nieuwendyk in the 1997 playoffs. McDavid was in pretty much the same spot Nieuwendyk was, with time and space and the game on his stick. But Oettinger, with some help from defenceman Chris Tanev, got a paddle on it.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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