ARLINGTON, Texas – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored two quick power-play goals, Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots and the Edmonton Oilers beat the top-seeded Dallas Stars 3-1 to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference finals on Friday night.
There had been no power-play goal for either team in this series until Nugent-Hopkins scored on a rebound just 18 seconds after a foul in the first period, two seconds longer than it took him to score when the Oilers were up a man after a foul a minute into the second period.
Game 6 will take place on Sunday evening in Edmonton. A home win would put the Oilers in the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2006. In November they were 5-12-1 and had already made a coaching change.
Philip Broberg scored a goal for the Oilers from just inside the blue line. Evan Bouchard assisted on both power play goals, while captain Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each assisted on one of the goals.
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The Stars took a 2-0 lead in the first 5:29 of Game 4 in Edmonton and looked like they might have a firm grip on the series. Instead, they went nearly 109 minutes without scoring again, across six periods, snapping their longest goal drought of the season.
Edmonton scored eight straight goals to tie the game at the end of the first period on Wednesday night, part of five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win before taking a 3-0 lead on Friday. The Stars, now 4-6 at home this postseason, finally got a puck in the net again when Wyatt Johnston scored with 5:51 left.
Jake Oettinger had 23 saves for the Stars.
Dallas had only six shots on goal at halftime, but Skinner had already made several good saves by then – and even more afterward, including on the Stars' only power play late in the second period.
Skinner thwarted a one-timer opportunity by the 21-year-old Johnston just seconds after denying Miro Heiskanen during that power play. Early in the third period, Johnston's shot from close range was blocked by Matt Duchene's backhand shot.
Oettinger really had no chance on Nugent-Hopkins' first goal, scoring on a rebound after Bouchard's shot was blocked by Chris Tanev, the defenseman who was questionable for the game after firing a right-footed shot in the second period of the last game. The puck went straight to Nugent-Hopkins on the opposite side of the goalie.
Heiskanen was assessed a delay of game penalty just 50 seconds into the second period after hitting the puck over the glass into the stands. Edmonton needed just 16 seconds to score when Draisaitl fed Nugent-Hopkins for a 9-meter snapshot.
Four minutes later, Evander Kane won a face-off against Joe Pavelski in the right circle, then Adam Henrique got the puck to Broberg for a long-range shot.
Pavelski, who was playing in the 200th playoff game of his career, collided shoulder-to-shoulder in the first period with teammate Corey Perry, also 39, who is the only other active player with at least 200 playoff games with 208. Perry left the ice and went to the locker room, but was back on the ice in the second period.
