DALLAS (AP) — Stuart Skinner and the Edmonton Oilers bounced back again, and go home even in the Western Conference final.
Skinner made 25 saves for his third shutout of the postseason, two nights after giving up five goals, Connor Brown scored after getting hit in the mouth by a skate and the Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 in Game 2 on Friday night.
“We’ve shown it for many years now, just perseverance from our team, maturity, just the way that we do respond,” Skinner said. “Like I said at the beginning of playoffs, it’s a roller coaster. There’s a lot of highs, lots of lows. Sometimes the score doesn’t always tell everybody exactly how the game unfolded.”
These Oilers overcame a 0-2 deficit in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings that cost Skinner his starting job before Calvin Pickard then got hurt.
And then there is Brown, who was bleeding after getting hit ny the toe of Mikael Granlund’s skate when the Stars forward fell down by him near the boards early in the second period.
Brown put the Oilers up 3-0 with 4:37 left in the second period, just 1:13 after defenseman Brett Kulak’s first goal in 36 games since Feb. 27.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a power-play goal in the first period for the Oilers, who go home for Game 3 on Sunday.
“One thing I did notice was the amount of battles we won and the amount of blocked shots,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “That’s just determination and knowing how important the game was tonight that we almost had to walk away with a victory.”
Skinner has four career playoff shutouts. He closed out the second round with consecutive shutouts against Vegas before giving up five goals on 27 shots in the 6-3 loss to opened the series against the Stars.
Dallas’ Jake Oettinger stopped 22 shots.
Stars forward Roope Hintz left the ice without putting any weight on his left leg after Edmonton defender Darnell Nurse slashed him on top of his left skate early in the third. Hintz went down to the ice in front of the Edmonton net, and immediately reached toward his foot. Nurse was given a minor penalty for slashing after officials reviewed for a potential major penalty.
Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said he had no update on the injury to Hintz, but certainly questioned the decision by officials.
“Does anyone in this room think if Connor McDavid gets carried off the ice like that it’s not a five-minute major?,” DeBoer responded when asked about the play.
Nugent-Hopkins, who also had the primary assist on Brown’s goal, put the Oilers ahead to stay 5:51 into the game when had a tip-in Evan Bouchard’s shot from above the right circle that was wobbling toward the net after going off the stick of Hintz. Edmonton had the man advantage after a boarding penalty against Granlund.
It was the second game in a row that Nugent-Hopkins had a power-play goal. He had two in a Game 4 win last year when the Oilers went on to beat Dallas in six games in the West final.
Leon Draisaitl had the secondary assist on that goal, and Connor McDavid had a helper on the Kulak’s goal when his initial shot was blocked by Mikko Rantanen before getting it right back. That pushed Draisaitl and McDavid, 100-point scorers during the regular season, to 20 points in these playoffs — matching Rantanen for the NHL high.
It is the fourth 20-point postseason in a row for McDavid, matching the longest stretch in NHL history with Sergei Fedorov (1995-1998), Bryan Trottier (1980-1983) and Mike Bossy (1980-1983). Draisaitl hit the 20-point mark for the second year in a row.
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