The Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Saturday to even the NHL’s Western Conference final at 1-1. Mason Marchment scored the game’s winning goal early in the third period.
The remainder of Dallas’ offence came from Jamie Benn, who scored a goal and supplied an assist, and Esa Lindell, who found an empty net. For the fourth consecutive playoff game, the Stars were without their best centre, Roope Hintz, due to a lower-body injury. Jake Oettinger made 28 saves in his place.
Stuart Skinner made 22 saves for Edmonton, who had a response from Connor Brown.
On Thursday, the Stars suffered their eighth consecutive Game 1 defeat; but, in five of those meetings, they have recovered to win the second game.
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At 3:41 of the third, Marchment scored his second goal of the postseason, tucking a knuckling Ryan Suter point shot past Skinner and through the legs of Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais to break a 1-1 tie.
The breakthrough came shortly after Stars rookie Logan Stankoven sent a puck through Edmonton’s crease with Skinner down and out.
Mattias Ekholm had a couple chances late in the third, but Oettinger was there both times to deny the Oilers blueliner before Lindell scored his second into an empty net with 2:03 remaining in regulation.
Dallas opened the scoring at 3:39 of the first when Benn fired his fourth off a 2-on-1 on the Stars’ first shot.
Edmonton responded just 44 seconds later when Connor Brown slid a rebound past Oettinger for his second-career playoff goal — and first since April 2018 when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Skinner made a couple of big stops later in the period despite the Oilers holding a 16-4 shot advantage through 20 minutes, denying Wyatt Johnson and two chances off the stick of Tyler Seguin.
Skinner made another huge save on Evgenii Dadonov six minutes into the second as the Stars came with a push before the Oilers killed off their 20th straight penalty to improve to an outstanding 38-for-41 in these playoffs.
Oettinger made a good stop on a Mattias Janmark wraparound chance to keep the score at 1-1 through 40 minutes before Marchment nudged Dallas ahead to even the series. READ MORE>>>>
