How the Stars edged Oilers in Game 2 to even series: 5 takeaways

Source: The New York Times
Author: Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Mark Lazerus

DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars have made a nasty habit of losing Game 1 -- they've now dropped seven in a row -- and none of them quite knows why.

"If I knew that, I probably would change it up," Tyler Seguin said.

While it's not exactly an ideal strategy in playoff hockey, it has helped the Stars become a more resilient bunch, and they responded Saturday night with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 of the Western Conference final. The series is now tied 1-1 as the scene shifts to Edmonton on Monday for Game 3.

Dallas took an early lead on a Jamie Benn goal in the first, gave it up 44 seconds later on Connor Brown's response goal and then withstood an early onslaught of shots and scoring chances before slowing the game down more to their liking. After an uneventful second period, the Stars regained the lead 3:41 into the third period when Mason Marchment got his stick on a Ryan Suter shot from the point while battling Vincent Desharnais for position in the low slot, deflecting it past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner.

It's now a best-of-five series. Here are five takeaways from Game 2.

Leon Draisaitl has been an absolute force throughout the playoffs. He entered Saturday with an NHL-best 25 points and has gotten on the scoresheet in each of the Oilers' 13 games.

The Stars put an end to that streak.

Playing his six contests on a line with Evander Kane and Dylan Holloway, Draisaitl didn't generate much at five-on-five. It was an unusually quiet night by his standards.

Draisaitl was closing in on the record for consecutive games with a point in a single playoff year. New York Islanders' Bryan Trottier holds the mark at 18 games in 1981.

The night without a point leaves Draisaitl third among Oilers in this category, following Wayne Gretzky (16 games in 1988) and Mark Messier (14 games in 1988).

As was the case in Game 1, it won't take long to count the number of opportunities the Oilers had with the man advantage. They had a grand total of just two power plays on Saturday.

But the Stars were called for actual infractions this time -- Esa Lindell for high-sticking Evan Bouchard and Jamie Benn for hooking Draisaitl -- whereas they were whistled for too many men on Thursday.

Whether it's an officiating issue or the Oilers not doing enough to draw penalties, they're almost certainly going to need more power-play tries to win this series.

The Oilers were 15-for-40 in the postseason entering the conference final, an outstanding 37.5 percent success rate. They're now 0-for-3 against the Stars.

Their power play often not only gives them a chance to win, it pushes them over the top. They haven't had much of a chance to do that so far.

It wasn't the busiest night of work for Stuart Skinner, but he did his job to give the Oilers a fighting chance to win this game.

Skinner was beaten twice, once when Jamie Benn kept on a two-on-one and then Mason Marchment tipping a Ryan Suter point shot for the winner in the third period.

He stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced. His best saves came when he stopped Tyler Seguin twice in the first period and then turned away Evgenii Dadonov early in the second.

Though Skinner took the loss, it sure seems like he's back to his regular-season form. Skinner has been a rock for the Oilers since returning to the crease for Game 6 of the previous series against the Vancouver Canucks.

Roope Hintz skated on Friday and participated in Saturday's morning skate, but the Stars' No. 1 center missed his fourth straight game with an apparent injury to his hand or wrist suffered in Game 4 of the Colorado series. Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he'd be a game-time decision, but he didn't take warmup. The only lineup change for Dallas was Ty Dellandrea coming in for Radek Faksa.

Hintz gets lost in the discussion of the game's elite players -- perhaps because he plays in Dallas, and perhaps because the Stars' success is predicated on balance throughout the lineup -- but he's arguably the Stars' best player, and almost certainly their best forward. Coming off his third straight 30-goal season, Hintz had two goals and four assists in the playoffs when he was injured. But Dallas is missing more than just his offense.

"He's not McDavid, but I guess my question would be, what would (Edmonton) be if you took their first-line center out of the lineup?" Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "What would the Rangers be if you took (Mika) Zibanejad out of the lineup? I mean, it's fairly obvious. He's big, he skates, he's a 200-foot player, he's one of our best defensive players, one of our best penalty killers, creates offense. Is there anything else on the list? Physical."

Seguin has assumed some of Hintz's heavy minutes and has been excellent in the first two games of this series with two goals in Game 1 and two high-quality scoring chances in the first period of Game 2. But slowing down and keeping up with the Oilers is hard enough with a full lineup. It's an even bigger challenge without your best two-way player. Hintz appears to be close to returning; he was handling the puck on Friday and Saturday without any apparent issues. But he can't come back fast enough for Dallas.

Following a double-overtime Game 1, the Stars held a highly optional skate on Friday at their practice facility in Frisco. After playing so long the night before, nearly every prominent Stars player took the skate off.

Not Joe Pavelski. He was out there, working on his game, trying to find his scoring touch again.

"I believe I have more to give," Pavelski said.

Pavelski scored 27 goals in the regular season, fourth most on the team. He has just one in the playoffs and three assists. He's not the only Dallas star who's been quiet so far in this series; Jason Robertson has one assist, while Matt Duchene, Logan Stankoven and Miro Heiskanen have been kept off the scoresheet entirely.

It's no secret the Stars win with their depth, and to be even in the series with most of their top scorers held in check is a testament to that, but eventually, their big guns will have to do what they do best and produce.