McDavid, Hyman each scores twice, Oilers cruise past Stars in Game 3

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman each scored twice for the Edmonton Oilers, who cruised to a 6-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Sunday.

Edmonton leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN, ESPN+).

“You have to win games different ways. You have to have dominant nights, you have to have nights where maybe your goalie is better than theirs,” McDavid said. “You have to have nights where your special teams gets it done. That wasn’t tonight, although I thought the kill was good.

“Five-on-five has been really good. It’s been our strength all playoffs long, which is maybe new for this group. We’ve relied on the power play for a long time, and for whatever reason it hasn’t been clicking. You have to find ways to win different games different ways, and we did again tonight.”

Hyman also had an assist, Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane each had three assists for the Oilers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Pacific Division. Stuart Skinner made 33 saves.

Jason Robertson scored, and Jake Oettinger made 18 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 2 seed from the Central Division. Roope Hintz did not play because of a lower-body injury.

“Tonight, we were without our No. 1 center, we were on the road here in a tough environment. I thought we played a really good hockey game for a good stretch of that game,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “So, there’s nothing to get emotional or upset about. I think you have to be realistic with your group.

“I liked our compete tonight, I liked a lot of parts of our game, and we’ve got to build on that and hopefully get Roope Hintz back and get back in this series.”

Bouchard put the Oilers in front 1-0 at 14:02 of the first period. Nugent-Hopkins skated into the right circle and passed back to Bouchard, who skated into a one-timer that beat a screened Oettinger past his right pad.

McDavid scored just 36 seconds later to make it 2-0. Skating in on a 3-on-1, he took a return pass from Nugent-Hopkins at the bottom of the right circle and roofed a one-timer over Oettinger’s left shoulder.

Robertson cut it to 2-1 at 15:35 of the second period, redirecting Lian Bichsel's shot from the high slot five-hole on Skinner.

McDavid responded with 19 seconds left in the period to push it to 3-1. He picked up the puck along the right boards and sent a wrist shot through the legs of Esa Lindell that beat Oettinger blocker side.

“I thought we played pretty good at structure, but one slipup, a couple slipups, and they’re a dangerous team and they can score goals,” Robertson said. “It’s 2-1 in the series, we still have an opportunity to try and get one on the road. So, I don’t think it’s any frustration with what we have to do. There are a lot of veterans in this room and they’re going to be up to the challenge on Tuesday.”

Dallas outshot Edmonton 21-7 in the second period.

“[Twenty-one] shots in the second period, only one goal and they end up tying the period. So, I think Skinner was the difference-maker tonight,” Stars forward Mikko Rantanen said. “I think he was really good, he made key saves when it was 3-1. [Tyler Seguin] has a Grade A in the slot and he makes the save. Ten seconds later it’s 4-1. So, he was the MVP of the match, I would say.”

Hyman extended the lead to 4-1 at 3:25 of the third period, receiving a stretch pass from Nugent-Hopkins at the blue line before scoring blocker side on a breakaway.

“That’s probably the play that sums up the game, I guess,” Hyman said. “They had a couple of looks before Stu bailed us out.

“We turned it over a couple of times and there was a break and I was able to get behind the 'D,' and ‘Nuge’ made an amazing pass and had a lot of time.”

Hyman then made it 5-1 at 12:06. After forcing a turnover in the neutral zone, he chipped in a saucer pass from Kane over a diving Lindell on a 2-on-1 rush.

John Klingberg made it 6-1 with a power-play goal at 17:40, scoring glove side with a wrist shot through a screen.

"I thought we were fortunate to be up after 40 (minutes), but I thought Stu did a great job," McDavid said. "We played really solid in front of him in Game 2 (a 3-0 win on Friday) and not so solid tonight, and he gave us a chance to get our legs into it. He gave us a chance to win."

NOTES: Oilers forward Connor Brown left the game in the second period after being hit along the boards by Stars defenseman Alexander Petrovic. There was no update. ... The Oilers are 21-3 (.875) all-time when leading a best-of-7 series 2-1. ... Hyman finished the game with 10 hits and a plus-5 rating.