Last night the Edmonton Oilers took the Dallas Stars to task with a huge 3–1 victory in Game 5. This was arguably the best performance of the Oilers post-season and was certainly the most important. Dallas is the toughest team by regular season standings that Edmonton has seen so far and is the first team to which Edmonton was considered a legitimate under dog. The story lines in this game are so abundant it’s hard to decide what to talk about first. From the nearly flawless special teams performance, to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ dominance, to Stuart Skinner standing on his head in the third period, this was exactly what the doctor ordered.
The Oilers dominated every aspect of the game
Yesterday morning Nugent-Hopkins was heavily lauded by his teammates in an after practice interview session; Leon Draisaitl even going so far as to say that Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t make any mistakes and that he is Kris Knoblauch’s favourite player. Later that same night Nugent-Hopkins made them all look like geniuses. As the longest tenured player on the Oilers roster and a consummate professional, he has become a fan favourite and has blossomed into a true NHL star in the McDavid-Draisaitl era. He has never produced a more important body of work than he did last night: with two power play goals and contribution to the outstanding penalty kill which led the way to the Oilers win, bringing them within one win of the Stanley Cup Final.
The second part that was accessory to the Oilers win was the continued success of the penalty kill and the resurgence of the power play. In this series the power play has been operating at a measly zero for six. Were this the regular season they would have scored two power play goals by this point in the series. Edmonton also has not had many opportunities this series, only six power plays in four games, 1.5 per game, which is half of the 2.96 that it was in the regular season. The power play is the Oilers not so secret weapon and they will need it firing on all cylinders in order to finish Dallas off. Far more encouraging is the stellar penalty kill which is now operating at 93.5% efficiency in the playoffs. A 22.5% power play is considered average in the NHL but the Oilers are holding opponents to 6.5% on average and that is not getting the attention it deserves.
Last but not least was the play of Stuart Skinner, who saw only 20 shots on goal but turned it on when he needed to. The start of the game was briefly fast and furious with both goalies having to make tricky saves. For the rest of the first period and for the second the Oilers played very well and the Stars looked, as my U18 coach would say, decidedly lackadaisical. Skinner only saw ten shots in the first two frames. You knew that Dallas would push back in the third though and they came out flying. Skinner had to make some huge saves to start the game and it was some of the best play I’ve ever seen from him. On another night those chances are finding twine and by the ten minute mark it’s a tie game. The only shot to keep him from immaculate was an astounding tip from Wyatt Johnson that would have gone in even if an elephant was playing goal.
Goals from the night
The Oilers struck first on the power play, a much needed piece of reassurance for a struggling power play in this series. In this instance, Nugent-Hopkins was able to plot a rebound after a blast from Evan Bouchard. In the industry we call this being in the right place at the right time.
The second goal of the night for the Oilers, for the power play, and for the Nuge! When it rains it pours and it was pouring Nugent-Hopkins power play goals last night for the Oilers. Though this was a power play goal it didn’t look like they usually do, not a a set play from McDavid, but instead a goal off the rush. Draisaitl took a stretch pass from Bouchard on the Stars’ blue line then flipped a pass across to Nugent-Hopkins who placed it under the glove of Jake Oettinger, off the post, and into the net.
Congratulations to Phillip Broberg for scoring his first career goal of the NHL playoffs. Evander Kane won the faceoff to Adam Henrique who passed back to Broberg on the blueline. Broberg pounded a perfectly placed one-timer straight into the top corner of the net. It’s great to see Broberg score and to see the third line score some much needed points for the Oilers.
The Stars finally found the net behind Skinner on an absolutely beautiful tip from Wyatt Johnson. The shot from Thomas Harley found its way through a maze of feet and onto the overturned stick blade of Johnston which sent it top corner for one of the nicest tips I’ve ever seen.
Oilers figuring out how to defeat the Stars
It has been great to watch this new look middle six of McLeod, Draisaitl, Perry, Kane, Henrique, and Dylan Holloway these past two games. Knoblauch’s stock is rising and he looks like a genius for finding this just in time solution after the losses to Dallas in Game 2 and 3. The second line is less dominant than it could be but looks solid while the third line has seen drastic improvement. Dallas is considered the deeper team but they couldn’t start anything against Edmonton’s bottom six and they were dominated by the top six.
Game 5 was a literal blueprint that the Oilers can draw from whenever they need to know how to beat any team. The game had a little bit of everything: heroics, special teams, goaltending, a touch of depth, and defending. It would be easy to say that the Stars didn’t play well and certainly they can play better, but the Oilers defended well, snuffing out any rushes before they could gain any real momentum or keeping the Stars hemmed in their own zone long enough that they were forced to change instead of start any offense.
Dallas will come out hard in Game 6 so the Oilers will have to play like they did last night in order to win, but a win this coming Sunday at home would send the city of Edmonton into the best possible hysterics.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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