Oilers bemoan loss of control in Game 1: ‘We’ve got to be an awful lot more mature’

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DALLAS – The Edmonton Oilers were mostly in control for the first two periods of Game 1 on Wednesday and, with a two-goal lead, seemed poised to cruise to their ninth win in their last 10 games.

And then a combination of a string of penalties and an inability to kill them torpedoed those prospects.

The Oilers allowed three power-play goals to the Dallas Stars in the third period before it was six minutes old, never recovered and lost 6-3 to open the Western Conference final rematch.

“We have to be better in that department, all of us, to a man,” Oilers penalty-kill mainstay Darnell Nurse said. “Whether it’s a won battle, a clear, a block, whatever play has to be made on the PK, we have to make it and we didn’t do that enough.”

Brett Kulak’s second penalty of the game at 18:58 of the second period, a hooking call against Mason Marchment, shouldn’t have led to the Oilers’ downfall. Not given everything they’d done to that point.

But that became the unexpected turning point, as the Oilers unravelled from there. It was shocking how it all went down.

“We let down out guard for five or six minutes, got into some penalty trouble,” goaltender Stuart Skinner said. “They were coming out hot, momentum kind of shifted for them in that moment and obviously it bit us.”

Miro Heiskanen scored just 32 seconds into the third period to cut Edmonton’s advantage to 3-2. Skinner blamed himself for looking to the left of Marchment, who was providing the last screen in front, instead of to the right.

But that could have, and maybe even should have, just been bit a mere blip on the radar. Instead, the Oilers kept taking penalties and kept not stopping the Stars when they had an extra skater on the ice.

“We have to kill better,” Nurse said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Veteran Corey Perry high-sticked the Stars’ Sam Steel right in front of the Dallas net. Mikael Granlund tied the game on the power play by blasting a shot over Skinner’s shoulder from the faceoff dot. Again, there was tons of traffic in front thanks to Oilers blueliner Jake Walman trying to block the shot and Stars winger Jason Robertson right by the goalie.

Evander Kane was then also called for high-sticking, this time on Matt Duchene. It was Duchene who put the Stars ahead for the first time by converting on his second attempt on a scramble. That was Duchene’s first goal of the playoffs.

It was hard to believe how the Oilers’ lead vanished. The Stars’ three power-play goals came within 5:26 of each other and in the first 5:58 of the third.

“We give up three goals in a row on the kill. It just kills the momentum, and then you’re chasing the game,” Leon Draisaitl said. “The game changes from there. We’ve got to be an awful lot more mature than that.”

Sure, penalties came too often, too quickly. But that’s no excuse for allowing that many power-play goals in such short succession.

“We took a couple more (penalties) than we have in the last few games, but when the PK gets out there, we have to step up and make plays,” Nurse said.

The Oilers felt they’d make significant penalty-killing strides after allowing five goals on 10 chances in the first two games of the playoffs. They then thwarted 17 of 23 chances by the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights over the last nine games heading into Game 1 against the Stars.

As it turned out, however, it was two steps forward and one back.

“We’ve got to stay out of the box, but there’s going to be penalties,” Draisaitl said. “You’ve got to come up with a kill. I’m not on it, so who am I to say anything? But that’s just common sense. That’s a fact.”

The other frustrating part about this loss for the Oilers, to borrow Draisaitl’s terminology, was this performance looked like a continuation of the efforts they put in to close out the Vegas series.

The Oilers carried the play at five-on-five over the first two periods and outscored the Stars 3-1 during that span. Draisaitl and Connor McDavid were absolutely buzzing. The Oilers even scored a power-play goal, their first on the road in the playoffs in what was their 15th chance, and they convincingly killed off the only Stars man advantage they faced.

Their only blemish was a Draisaitl turnover in the offensive zone that led to a Tyler Seguin breakaway and a goal that ended Stuart Skinner’s shutout streak at 142 minutes, 42 seconds – fourth-best in Oilers postseason history. There was a lot to like about everything — until the third period.

But hockey games, of course, aren’t 40 minutes long. It didn’t even take six minutes for all the good to go for naught.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Skinner said. “You just can’t be doing that, especially at playoff time, especially against a team like this. They know how to score goals.”

The Stars padded their lead to 5-3 with Seguin’s second goal of the game before Esa Lindell scored into an empty net.

For an Oilers team that seemed as though it had everything settled – that could win almost every way and any way imaginable – Wednesday’s loss was a stark reminder that they don’t.

“You always think you’ve figured it out, and then you get humbled in a hurry,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said.

It’s not quite back to the drawing board, given how well they fared at five-on-five and how much they pushed the pace before the second intermission.

The penalty kill is another story. They just better hope those struggles don’t continue in Game 2.

“We’re going to have to put this one behind us and move on,” Knoblauch said. “We’ve had some heartbreaking losses in the playoffs, and we’ve been able to rebound nicely and not worry too much about it.”

(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

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