May 23, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

Game 1 of the Western Conference Final between the Edmonton Oilers and the Dallas Stars was a thriller! The Oilers got out to a 2-0 lead in the second period, but the Stars got a tying goal with about three and a half minutes left in the third period.

Connor McDavid stole the show in overtime. He took a double minor for high sticking Matt Duchene off the opening faceoff in overtime, and the Oilers were able to kill it off. McDavid was absolutely robbed by Jake Oettinger on a chance where Oettinger’s only possible move was to reach out with his stick and hope that McDavid hit it with the shot. That’s exactly what happened. McDavid would get the last laugh because he scored the game winner early in double overtime to give the Oilers a 3-2 win.

Call Outs

Brett Kulak absolutely fumbled a puck in his own zone. He was trying to make a breakout pass on his off side, but the puck slipped off his stick. The puck went to Jamie Benn, and he got a partial breakaway. He failed to tuck the puck past Stuart Skinner, but he swept the puck across the crease to Tyler Seguin who was able to jam it home eventually. Kulak was otherwise great in Game 1, but that was a terrible mistake that led directly to a goal against.

Stand Outs

Every single member of the penalty killing unit deserves to be in the Stand Outs section tonight. The group killed off all five Stars powerplays, including a four minute penalty in overtime. The Stars had a lot of trouble gaining entry and getting set up on their powerplay. The Oilers did a great job of being aggressive at the defensive blue line and making life difficult for any Stars puck carrier in the defensive zone. The Oilers have now killed off nineteen consecutive penalties, which is a tremendous stretch.

Stuart Skinner was terrific in Game 1. He made 31 saves on 33 shots, and he didn’t really have a chance on either of the goals he allowed. The gaffe by Kulak resulted in a breakaway that Skinner needed to sprawl out to save. He wasn’t able to get back into position in time to stop Seguin. The second goal was just a bounce off of Darnell Nurse’s skate to Seguin who had another wide open net. I put that one more on the pairing of Nurse and Vincent Desharnais for poor defensive coverage. Skinner made every save that he needed to make and he looked great doing it.

Shoutouts

Zach Hyman got his league-leading twelfth goal of the playoffs, and he added an assist on the game’s opening goal.

Leon Draisaitl extended his point scoring streak to thirteen games. Yes, that means that Draisaitl has gotten at least a point in every one of the Oilers’ playoff games this season!

I want to give the fourth line a shoutout because they spent a lot of time in the offensive zone and created a lot of energy for the team in this game. Connor Brown particularly caught my eye with his play at both ends of the ice.

I suppose I can give McDavid a shoutout for his double overtime game winning goal as well. He also became the fourth player in NHL history to record 120 assists in a single season (regular season and playoffs combined) according to Eric Friesen.

#Oilers Connor McDavid joins Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Doug Gilmour as the only players in NHL history to record 120 assists in a single season (including playoffs)! #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/BNedTemVBk

— Eric Friesen 🏒 (@EricJFriesen) May 24, 2024

Wrap

That was a huge win for the Oilers! The team that comes into a series with less rest often wins the first game of the next series, and the Oilers did exactly that. They capitalized on a potentially too rested Stars team that has struggled to win Game 1s recently. The win gives the Oilers home ice advantage for the rest of the series (unless of course, they lose a game in Edmonton).

This win is the ninth for the Oilers in this postseason. That means that the Oilers have now advanced the furthest that they ever have in McDavid and Draisaitl’s careers. It’s ultimately a meaningless stat, but it’s a nice thing to have happen before we enter the final year of Draisaitl’s contract and the second last year of McDavid’s contract.

Game 2 of this series will be on Saturday night.

Related: Series Preview: Oilers vs Stars