GAME RECAP: Stars 4, Oilers 3

EDMONTON, AB – Sam Gagner scored twice in his return to Oil Country on Thursday night, but the comeback effort from the Edmonton Oilers in the third period led by No. 89 fell short in a 4-3 defeat to the Dallas Stars at Rogers Place.

"I thought we were still in that game, and you want to make a big play and score a goal to try to help us rally," Gagner said post-game. "I think we had a lot of chances, we created a lot, we had a lot of luck with the goalie pulled, but just couldn't find a way to get the equalizer."

The 34-year-old forward began his third stint with the Oilers and potted his 112th and 113th career goals for the club to pull Edmonton to within one goal after trailing 4-1 in the final frame to the Stars, who were playing the second of a back-to-back after beating the Calgary Flames the night prior.

The Oilers went 0-for-4 on the power play and couldn't complete the comeback in the final minutes despite pulling their netminder Stuart Skinner, who made 23 saves in the defeat. Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood stopped 46-of-49 shots sent his way after Edmonton outshot Dallas 49-27 over the full 60 minutes, while forward Roope Hintz (2G, 1A) and Joe Pavelski (1G, 2A) each had three-point nights.

"I feel like a couple of mistakes get magnified and end up in your net," Gagner added. "I thought for the most part we drove play. It's just a matter of having that intensity throughout the game to bear down on certain things to happen, so I think there's a lot to like too, a lot to build off of, and we just got to keep pushing forward."

The Blue & Orange's record falls to 2-6-1 heading into Saturday's matinee meeting with the Nashville Predators at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

Nugent-Hopkins might've been wondering 'How did that not go in?' when Matt Duchene went back the other way and opened the scoring just 20 seconds after he nearly made the most of a Scott Wedgewood mistake behind the Stars' net.

The Dallas back-up netminder, getting the start in place of regular Jake Oettinger on the second of a back-to-back, coughed up the puck up to No. 93 on an attempted rim around the boards that was knocked down by the longest-tenured Oiler below the goal line. Nugent-Hopkins tried a wrap-around that was prevented from crossing the goal line by the twin sticks of defenceman Esa Lindell and forward Mason Marchment before the puck was carried out of the zone.

After an Edmonton regroup, Cody Ceci pinched at the blue line, but the puck was chipped out by Marchment to set up an odd-man rush for Dallas between Duchene and Tyler Seguin against Skinner and Darnell Nurse. The former third-overall pick at the 2009 NHL Draft kept the puck to himself and beat Skinner five-hole for the 1-0 advantage after Nugent-Hopkins nearly opened the scoring at the other end.

"They're good on the rush. [Stars Head Coach Pete DeBoer] and those guys, they really work on their transition and they have some speed," Kane said. "We make mistakes, they have some skill and talent, and they can finish those plays off. That's what they did tonight."

The Oilers forward, however, would play his part in Edmonton's equalizing goal that came three minutes before the first intermission.

Nugent-Hopkins came sliding through the top of the Dallas zone to take the puck away from Pavelski, who put the play onside by bringing the puck over the blue line. No. 93 offloaded a short pass to Kane, who wired his third goal of the season far post past Wedgewood on the three-minute mark of the opening frame to tie the game at 1-1 heading into the intermission.

SECOND PERIOD

After the Oilers pre-game skate Thursday morning, Coach Woodcroft spoke of the importance that would be placed on special teams against a Dallas team that's effective in both situations. "We're going against a really effective penalty kill tonight and a power play on Dallas's side that can ice some pretty dangerous players," he said.

Unfortunately, they weren't working in Edmonton's favour during the middle frame, where the Oilers have now been outscored 14-7 this season after Pavelski and Hintz made it a 3-1 game through 40 minutes.

The Oilers gave up another odd-man rush when attempting to make a quick change as the puck was worked around the neutral zone by the Stars in the opening four minutes of the middle frame. Miro Heiskanen moved the puck up to Hintz, who fired a cross-ice pass to Pavelski for a one-timer that the 39-year-old put beyond Skinner for the go-ahead goal.

"We just made too many boo-boos tonight yet again," Kane said. "You look at three of their goals and they're off the rush, they're odd-man rushes, and they end up in the back of our net. Every time we get some pucks to the net in the third period, we score some goals, but we can't expect to score four or five goals every night to win. It's just not realistic."

When Dallas was given their first opportunity with the man advantage, they made no mistake when Hintz was in the perfect position to push their third goal of the night under a sliding Skinner after Pavelski poked it ahead and off the stick of Darnell Nurse in between the hashmarks in Edmonton's zone. The Stars were just 2-for-23 on the power play (8.7%) coming into Thursday's game, with their 34:43 time spent on the power play being the lowest in the NHL through their first eight games.

The Blue & Orange had their opportunities over two power plays in the second period, but Evan Bouchard couldn't beat the crossbar after the defender struck the iron twice in quick succession after Dallas was given a too-many-men penalty in the final three minutes of the second period. The Oilers were still maintaining a top-10 power play in the League (24.1 percent) entering Thursday night despite setting NHL records last year at 34.1 percent, but it hasn't been producing at big moments when they need it to.

"Bouch hit the post three times on the one, so I guess a bounce here and there would be lacking," Kane said. "But again, we're moving the puck well. We're getting our looks, but we can't rely on the power play to win us hockey games. It's a nice bonus to score power-play goals, but we scored three even-strength goals tonight. We gave up three and one on the PK, so we have to look to find ways to win. We can't just rely on the power play."

THIRD PERIOD

Welcome back to Oil Country, No. 89.

After falling behind 4-1 after Hintz added his second goal of the game, Rogers Place reached maximum decibel levels in celebration of the first two goals of Sam Gagner's third stint in Blue & Orange.

"The league is getting younger and younger, but if you want to win, you have to have veteran guys like that on your team because there's a lot of intangibles that come with it," Kane said. "He was a real easy guy to play with in the third period there getting pucks, playing north and driving the net and he got rewarded with two goals."

The 34-year-old veteran of 1,016 NHL games – 543 of those with the Oilers – willed his first goal back in Oilers colours over the line when he drove hard to the net to force a loose puck beneath Wedgewood over the goal line with just over nine-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation, drawing the loudest cheer (at the time) that Rogers Place has seen at this early stage of the 2023-24 season.

The roof was raised again three minutes later after Evander Kane crossed up a Stars' defender off a centre-ice draw to create a two-on-one, where Gagner got the last touch on the puck before it crossed the line to make it 4-3 before the six-minute mark of the final frame.

"I think it's a good lesson for some guys that haven't scored in a long time to see where Sam had his offensive success tonight – right around the blue paint," Woodcroft said. "It's a credit to him. He played a good game, and he was the next man up [for the extra attacker]."

Edmonton's comeback effort would fall short after pulling Skinner for the extra man in the final two minutes, with the Blue & Orange falling to 2-6-1 on the season despite putting up 49 shots on Thursday.

PARTING WORDS

Gagner on his perspective of the mood within the Oilers locker room:

"I just think it's obviously not the start anybody wanted. There's been a lot of expectations on this group, and when it doesn't go exactly as you planned, I think it's hard to see kind of the positivity throughout games. You kind of wait for bad things to happen, and when they do, it kind of has a snowball effect. So I think it's just a matter of finding that joy again, finding the urgency to make sure we're getting things done correctly, and if it doesn't go exactly our way, just pushing through it and enjoying the process of it. It's a great opportunity ahead of us to climb the standings and we're going to keep pushing forward."

Kane on the mood inside Edmonton's locker room:

"I think the mood is where it should be. Again, we know we're a good hockey team, but it's enough talking about it. It's time to work. Like I said, I think we worked tonight. We played a good hockey game in a lot of ways, but these big mistakes we can't continue to make... I don't know if it's frustrating, but it's got to stop. If we do that, we're going to really like the result."

Coach Woodcroft on the level or worry in the locker room as they near the 10-game mark:

"I don't share your level of worry or concern, but our record is what our record is. I saw some good signs. I've seen some things in some players; improvement in players. I saw a team working very hard to try and make amends for falling behind, but ultimately, we shot ourselves in the foot tonight. We're taking it one day at a time. We are taking it one game at a time, and we're looking to take a step here. We'll carefully review this game. We'll go over every inch of it, and we're going to give our team something to help us improve heading into the next game. We're looking to win that next game and win a game here in the best building in the National Hockey League."