Oilers ‘punch back’ with strong Game 2 — and with Stuart Skinner back in shutout form

DALLAS — Once is a coincidence; twice is a pattern. And that pattern is starting to look like a good omen for the Edmonton Oilers and their Stanley Cup chances.

For the second time in these playoffs, the Oilers followed up a crushing loss with a convincing win. The latest one was Game 2 on Friday, when they beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 to even the Western Conference final at 1-1, with Game 3 on Sunday in Edmonton.

“That’s the playoffs. You have to be able to punch back,” Oilers winger Zach Hyman said. “We recognize how important each game is, but especially after a loss. You have to come out strong and earn a split, and we were able to do it.”

The Oilers’ response came after they dropped the series opener 6-3 on Wednesday, when they allowed five unanswered goals in the third period, including three while short-handed in the first 5:58 of the period. That was a shocking way to blow the game, especially considering the Oilers had been in complete control for the opening 40 minutes. They didn’t let that dispiriting defeat affect them in the slightest on Friday.

Once again, they carried the play for the first two periods, and took a 3-0 lead. This time, though, they followed through with the victory.

“We bounce back. We believe we’re a good team in a tough situation,” Connor McDavid said. “Down one game on the road, you have to find a way to have your best game, and we had a good one. We found a way to get a win.”

Stuuuuuuuu 🤯 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/yF8WVz9MQ4

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 24, 2025

Friday’s performance resembled Game 4 of the second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, which came after the Oilers had surrendered the winning goal to Reilly Smith with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation. That loss was unbelievable. Goalie Stuart Skinner called it “devastating.” It was the type of moment that could swing a series.

But the Oilers followed that up with a 3-0 Game 4 victory that was never in doubt. The Oilers put forth a similar effort in Game 2 against the Stars.

“You just have to have a short memory, no matter what happens,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “The only way you get by that is if you worry about the present and what needs to be done. We’re an older team. We’ve got a lot of experience and they’re able to focus on what’s important.”

Both of those bounce-back games were shutout victories, which leads us to a key reason why the Oilers have bounced back from disheartening results.

Skinner has had some challenging times through the first 13 games of the playoffs. Heck, he didn’t even start six of them after being pulled after allowing 11 goals on 58 shots during the first five and a half periods of the series against the Kings.

But Skinner has now recorded three shutouts in the Oilers’ last four games, and he has tied Curtis Joseph (in 1998) for the most shutouts by an Oilers goaltender in a single playoff year with three.

Skinner stopped all 25 shots he faced in Game 2 after allowing five goals on Wednesday.

“As players, you don’t have enough appreciation for how a goalie battles,” McDavid said. “You trust he’s going to do his job back there and battle and try to see the puck and make every save he can, and he did that. He made every save. That’s a good night for a goalie.”

The Oilers were once again solid in front of Skinner, leading McDavid to remind everyone yet again that they truly can defend effectively. Skinner did his part, too, though.

He saved his best for the third period, when the Stars finally made their push. He stopped Wyatt Johnston on a breakaway early in the frame and then just got his stick on a shot from Esa Lindell midway through the period.

“I did know that I stopped it. I didn’t know how close it exactly was,” Skinner said. “I felt it hit my stick, and then I was just kind of praying to God at that point that it didn’t go in.”

Things could have been much different if either of those attempts had gotten by him.

“Part of the reason we’re talking about how much better we were defensively is (Skinner),” Knoblauch said.

As a result, the Oilers won Game 2 for the eighth time in 12 tries after losing a Game 1 in the McDavid era.

“We’ve been in a lot of series, and unfortunately down in a lot of series after one game, and we’ve been able to work our way in most of them,” Hyman said.

Backed by Skinner, the Oilers easily have been the best team in four of the first six periods of this season — and maybe even five periods. There’s a lot to like about their Game 2 performance.

McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each recorded an assist to hit the 20-point mark again in a playoff year. For McDavid, it was the fourth straight campaign he’s done so. Draisaitl has done it in three of the past four years.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard each had two points. Bouchard now has 15 points in 13 games, and 73 points in 66 career postseason contests. Per Sportsnet Stats, Bouchard’s 1.11 average in the playoffs — compared to 0.69 in the regular season — represents the largest increase between the two scenarios in NHL history.

Brett Kulak netted his first goal of the playoffs, becoming the fourth Oilers blueliner and 17th different Edmonton player to score this spring. But it was the Oilers’ play without the puck that was probably most impressive.

“When we defend and everyone is bought in like that, we know we’re going to find enough offense somewhere,” McDavid said.

Rebounding with a resounding victory after a Game 1 loss shouldn’t have been considered automatic for the Oilers, though. In the first round, after a close Game 1 loss to the Kings, the Oilers responded with what has been their worst game of these playoffs and fell behind 2-0 in that series.

There was a lot going on with the team then. The Oilers were integrating several players back into the lineup who were injured down the stretch: Draisaitl, Hyman, Jake Walman and Trent Frederic. Evander Kane, who hadn’t played all season, and John Klingberg, who had suited up just once since March 4, were added to the Oilers’ Game 2 lineup. They were still missing Mattias Ekholm and Troy Stecher.

They look more than sorted out, now with everyone other than Ekholm and Pickard available – and Ekholm appears to be closing in on a return from his injury.

“You’ve seen the growth happen every single game, especially as playoffs got started here,” Skinner said. “I feel like every single day, we’ve just improved, gotten better and better and better.

“When you look at the teams that win, they’re normally the teams that are pretty stifling defensively. We’ve been improving and we’re getting better because we want to be that team.”

Nothing indicates that better than recovering seamlessly from losses that might crumple the hopes of lesser teams.

(Photo: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)

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