Stars struggle to score again in Game 4 loss, pushed to brink in Western Final

EDMONTON -- Frustration. Anger. Those were among the emotions the Dallas Stars expressed after a 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

The Stars have lost three games in a row and are on the brink of being eliminated in the conference final for the third year in a row entering Game 5 at American Airlines Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS), trailing 3-1 in the best-of-7 series.

Two goals. That’s all they’ve scored over the past three games, and this is a team that averaged 3.35 goals per game in the regular season, tied with the Winnipeg Jets for third in the NHL.

It’s telling that they missed the net 26 times Tuesday.

“Maybe we’re trying to shoot even too hard, trying too much maybe offensively,” forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Yeah, got to relax a little bit.”

Dallas desperately needed the first goal. But the Stars failed to score on an early power play, captain Jamie Benn took a tripping penalty in the offensive zone and forward Leon Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead on the ensuing power play at 11:23 of the first period.

It was the 14th time in 17 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that Dallas had allowed the first goal. The Stars have allowed the first goal in all eight of their road games and in all four games in this series. Although the Stars had a 39-16 advantage in shot attempts in the first period, they went into the first intermission behind 1-0.

“A little bit of the same story,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Just can’t get that lead.”

After the Stars failed to convert on another power play, they finally broke through on the power play when forward Jason Robertson picked the upper left corner from the right hash marks at 6:57 of the second period. That tied the game 1-1 and should have been a boost. It was Robertson’s second goal in two games after an eight-game drought.

But then forward Mason Marchment took an interference penalty in the offensive zone, and forward Corey Perry tapped in a beautiful pass from forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the ensuing power play at 9:20 of the second. Edmonton led 2-1. Dallas was chasing the game again.

“The other story is obviously the penalty kill,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got to get a kill tonight. That’s the difference in the game.”

The Stars failed to score on another power play and seemed to sag afterward. The Oilers ended up with a 21-17 advantage in shot attempts in the second and a 16-11 advantage in the third, and they tacked on two empty-net goals at the end.

Dallas had only four shots on goal in the third while trying to come back.

“It's tough when you score and you think you’ve got the momentum, and then they come back [and regain the lead],” Robertson said. “Now we’re fighting again, trying to find it, trying to find it. … We still couldn’t get another goal.”

Depth is supposed to be Dallas’ strength. The Stars had eight players with 16 goals or more in the regular season. But so many forwards are struggling to score.

Evgenii Dadonov has gone 14 games without a goal, and he was scratched when Roope Hintz rejoined the lineup after missing Game 3 with a lower-body injury. Benn has gone 14 games without a goal. Marchment has gone 12. Wyatt Johnston and Rantanen each has gone seven. Hintz has gone six.

Benn, Dadonov, Marchment and Matt Duchene each has only one goal in the playoffs.

“It’s, of course, frustrating,” defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. “But at the same time, the series is still on.”

Robertson tried to look at the bright side.

“We’re not coming in here and getting dominated the whole game, right?” he said. “We’re doing good things, and it’s not going in for us. We still have life.”

That’s true, and while the Stars are 2-6 on the road, they’re 7-2 at home.

“There’s a little anger right now, and then there’s excitement too,” forward Tyler Seguin said. “We get to go back home in front of our fans and break out a little bit here.”

But the reality is, of the 355 teams that have fallen behind 3-1 in a best-of-7 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, only 32 have come back to win the series. That’s a success rate of 9 percent. The Stars are going to have to bounce back from three straight losses with three straight wins.

“It’s time to reset again,” Rantanen said. “It’s not over until somebody wins four games, so now it’s just one game at a time. You don’t even think about really what the series is. It’s just win one game and try to come back to Alberta.”