Rantanen has goal, assist in Stars debut, Oilers hang on for win 

EDMONTON -- Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist in his Dallas Stars debut, but the Edmonton Oilers hung on for a 5-4 win at Rogers Place on Saturday.

The forward was traded to Dallas by the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, and then signed an eight-year, $96 million contract.

“Probably a little unfortunate in the first two periods, we obviously gave up breakaways, 2-on-1s, that’s not ideal against a good team like this,” Rantanen said. “Most nights they’re going to finish their chances like they did today. Four down, the third was obviously our best, desperate hockey, but we have to bring that earlier in the game.”

Zach Hyman had two goals and an assist, Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, and Leon Draisaitl had an assist to extend his point streak to 14 games for the Oilers (37-22-4), who took a four-goal lead into the third period and held on for their third win in four games. Stuart Skinner made 21 saves.

“They had two power-play goals and had one bounce off our own guy’s shinpad and in,” Hyman said. “We had some tough bounces. I thought ‘Stu’ played phenomenal. We just grinded one out.”

Wyatt Johnston, who signed a five-year, $42 million contract extension Saturday, pushed his goal streak to five games for the Stars (41-20-2), whose four-game winning streak ended. Matt Duchene had two assists and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves.

Rantanen started the Dallas comeback on the power play at 5:06 of the third period to make it 5-2, scoring a one-timer on a Duchene pass to the left circle that he sent past Skinner’s glove.

“Never mind flying across the country from Carolina here to make sure he’s here tonight for the game, that’s a big ask,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “And tomorrow night with the back to back, that’s even tougher. I really liked what I saw and he’s going to fit really well with us.”

Just 11 seconds later, Jamie Benn made it 5-3 at 5:17 when he took a centering pass from behind the net by Evgenii Dadonov and scored on the backhand past Skinner’s glove

Mathew Dumba made it 5-4 at 9:18. He sent a slap shot from the point that Skinner stopped but the rebound bounced in off of Oilers defenseman Ty Emberson.

Johnston put Dallas ahead 1-0 on the power play at 5:48 of the first period, picking up a rebound at the side of the net off a shot by Rantanen from the right-wing circle that was initially tipped by Jason Robertson.

Johnston has seven goals on the streak, the second five-game run of his career. He has 15 points (nine goals, six assists) on a nine-game point streak.

Just 24 seconds later, Hyman tied it 1-1 at 6:12, tapping in a pass from McDavid, who had drawn Oettinger out the side of the crease before cutting back in and sliding the puck behind him along the goal-line.

Hyman made it 2-1 at 12:26, getting sprung on a breakaway off a long lead pass by Jake Walman, before sending a backhand trickling in under Oettinger’s right arm.

Walman was acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

“I knew me and ‘Hymes’ had some sort of connection. Can’t put a finger on it, but I know we’ve got some sort of connection,” said Walman. “It was a great handle by him. It was a hard puck to [track] down. I was just trying to put it in an area for him. I saw he had a step.”

Viktor Arvidsson extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:42, sniping a one-timer far side past Oettinger from the right face-off dot off a cross-ice pass by Evan Bouchard.

Draisaitl had the secondary assist and has 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) on his streak.

McDavid made it 4-1 at 5:20 of the second period, carrying the puck past Ilya Lyubushkin for a breakaway and sending a backhand high glove side past Oettinger.

Connor Brown made it 5-1 at 17:40, after his pass intended for Mattias Janmark on a two-on-one ended up being blocked by Stars defenseman Thomas Harley and going right back to him for the put in past Oettinger, who got caught sliding across his crease.

NOTES: Dallas forward Roope Hintz left the game at 9:15 of the second period after getting hit in the face by a shot from Oilers forward Adam Henrique. “I don’t know, he’s at the hospital right now getting some tests,” DeBoer said. “The initial reaction was that everybody was optimistic that it’s not serious, serious, but we won’t know until we get testing.” … Johnston, who also went on a five-game goal streak from March 13-21, 2023, joined Mike Modano (six games in 1992-92, and five games in 1990-91) as the second player in Stars/North Stars history with multiple runs of that length under the age of 22. ... Robertson extended his point streak to seven games (seven goals, seven assists) ... Draisaitl joined Nathan MacKinnon (three in 2023-24) and McDavid (three in 2022-23 and two in 2021-22) as the only active players to record multiple point streaks of 14 games in the same season. ... McDavid pushed his point streak to seven games (two goals, eight assists).