GAME RECAP: Stars 6, Oilers 3 (Game 1)

DALLAS, TX – Over[power]ed in the Lone Star State.

The Dallas Stars scored five straight goals in the third period, including three on the power play in a 5:26 stretch, to overturn a two-goal lead for the Edmonton Oilers and come back to claim a 6-3 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night.

Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard all contributed goals for the Oilers in the first two periods to build themselves a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes, but a carry-over power play of 58 seconds to begin the third period for the Stars ended up kickstarting their five-goal stretch to claim victory.

"We gave up three goals in a row on the kill. It kills your momentum, and then you're chasing the game," Leon Draisaitl said. "We've got to be an awful lot more mature than that."

Miro Heiskanen, Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene all scored on the power play in a 5:26 span during the first six minutes of the third period, and Tyler Seguin posted his second goal of the contest with less than four minutes remaining in regulation before Esa Lindell added an empty-netter to make it 6-3.

"We let down our guard for five or six minutes and got into some penalty trouble," Stuart Skinner said. "They were coming out hot. Momentum shifted for them in that moment, and obviously it bit us. It's something for us to learn from, myself included, and we'll get better from there."

Leon Draisaitl (1G, 2A), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1G, 1A) and Connor McDavid (2A) each produced a multi-point effort in the defeat, while Stuart Skinner allowed five goals on 28 shots, ending his shutout streak at 142:42 of scoreless hockey.

The Stars will take a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final into Game 2 back at American Airlines Center on Friday night.

FIRST PERIOD

Hold onto your helmets – this is gonna be a fast series.

Oilers captain Connor McDavid made the first real strong move coming through the neutral zone less than four minutes in, clashing sticks with Mikko Rantanen at centre ice before picking up the puck on a quick touch and toe-dragging Esa Lindell to open up a backhand chance against Jake Oettinger.

Jake Walman drove to the net to pick up a back-door feed from McDavid, having his backhand deflection denied by Oettinger less than half a minute later before Stuart Skinner was called upon at the other end to make a glove save on Wyatt Johnston's hard shot from the right circle.

The Oilers were tasked with killing the first penalty when Brett Kulak was called for hooking past the seven-minute mark. A confident stop from Edmonton's penalty kill solidified their decent start to the WCF on special teams, which would ultimately draw mixed reviews at the end of Game 1.

After Kulak's penalty expired, Connor Brown and Adam Henrique failed to connect on a two-on-one before the Oilers had to clear a loose puck out of their own crease during the Stars' next rush up ice. But considering the back-and-forth nature of the first period, Edmonton was able to outlast Dallas to open the scoring after Leon Draisaitl hopped out on the ice following the penalty kill for a shift beside Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid.

Overlapping at the top of the Dallas zone, the trio was patient with their passing to open up a lane for Leon Draisaitl to protect the puck as he came into the right circle on his backhand before moving it to his forehand and firing a snap shot far side for the opening goal at 10:19 of the the opening period.

Draisaitl notched the opening goal of the Western Conference Final for the second straight year after he broke things open just 58 seconds into last year's Game 1 against Dallas, extending his post-season point streak against the Stars in the process to four games (2G, 2A).

With his first assist of the night, McDavid is now riding a five-game playoff point streak against the Dallas Stars, and the captain was on his way toward recording his fifth multi-point effort against the Stars over their previous six meetings in the postseason.

After Hyman nearly made it 2-0 when his shot from the slot that McDavid set up struck the crossbar, the Stars were able to pull even before the intermission on a fortunate breakaway for Tyler Seguin just over five minutes after Draisaitl opened the scoring.

The German ended up poking the puck into the path of Seguin after trying to elude Mason Marchment in the offensive zone, leading to the Dallas centre picking it up and cutting through John Klingberg and Jake Walman for a breakaway before he beat Stuart Skinner glove side to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

After looking sharp in the opening 20 minutes, Edmonton put in another assured period by tacking on two more goals in the middle frame from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard to retake the lead at 3-1 through 40 minutes of Game 1 at American Airlines Center.

McDavid flashed more great speed early in the period when he burned Thomas Harley – Saturday's overtime hero for the Stars against Winnipeg – with relative ease before firing a far-side shot on Oettinger that tested him early in the frame as the Oilers looked to establish their foothold in the middle frame.

On the power play at 6:08 of the period, the Oilers re-established their advantage at 2-1 off a fortunate bounce for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had McDavid's centring feed off the zone entry catch a piece of the stick of forward Oskar Bäck in the slot before landing on his stick to deliver a snap low glove on Oettinger.

The power-play tally was Edmonton's first of the 2025 playoffs away from Rogers Place after they came into the series 0-for-12 on the road.

The Oilers weren't done, making it 3-1 just 1:40 later on a terrific snipe from Evan Bouchard when the NHL's playoff scoring leader among defencemen was given all the time and space he needed to walk down from the blueline and tuck his fifth goal of the playoffs inside the far post.

Bouchard became just the second defenceman in franchise history to record at least two separate postseasons with five or more goals, joining Assistant Coach Paul Coffey, who did it three times with the Oilers. Nugent-Hopkins recorded his third multi-point game of these playoffs and the 19th of his career with a goal and an assist in the second period, tying Charlie Huddy for the 11th most in franchise history.

The Oilers had 58 seconds left to kill on another hooking penalty to Brett Kulak at the end of the second period, and that would spark a difficult stretch for their penalty kill early in the third period that threw a wrench into their Game 1 plans.

"You always think you figured it out, and then you get humbled in a hurry," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Did we think we would come in here and win four in a row against this team? Absolutely not. We knew it was going to be a hard, long series."

"We'll just have to recover and have a good start to the next game."

THIRD PERIOD

When the Oilers needed a kill, they couldn't get one.

Because of that, Game 1 goes to the Stars.

"Whether it's a one-on-one battle, a clear, a block or whatever play it is, it's got to be made on the PK," Darnell Nurse said. "You've gotta make it, and we didn't do that enough tonight."

Miro Heiskanen scored on a wrist shot through a screen with the man advantage only 32 seconds into the third period, bringing Dallas within a goal and setting up an unfortunate turn of events for Edmonton, where they allowed three straight power-play goals in a 5:28 stretch of the frame to give up the lead.

"The momentum obviously switched after that first one, and I think we did a pretty good job killing it for the first half of that penalty at the end of the second period," Knoblauch said. "They get that one on a shot through that ends up being a goal, and then, that obviously changed the momentum. They feel better about their game."

Corey Perry delivered a high stick on Sam Steel in front of Edmonton's net 2:19 after Heiskanen's goal, resulting in Mikael Granlund sniping the equalizer once again through bodies in front by going off the back crossbar behind Stuart Skinner to tie the game 2-2 with under three minutes gone in the third.

"[Traffic's] always something that you gotta fight through," Skinner said. "It's just competitiveness. Obviously, they're competing to get goals and get guys around the net, make my life a lot harder, and I just gotta fight through that. I gotta battle them as much as battling for sight of the puck, and that's what makes the game tough. It's hard. It's not supposed to be easy. So it's an opportunity for me to get better at that, get better at traffic play, get better at that competitiveness and work my way through it."

With the Stars on the man advantage again past the five-minute mark after Evander Kane was called for a soft high-sticking penalty on Matt Duchene, the Dallas centre made him pay by putting away a loose puck from the left post when Skinner failed to track a hard bounce off the boards behind the net.

Considering the Oilers were playing at even strength in this game, it was a tough turn of events as penalties came back to bite them. Nugent-Hopkins' power-play goal in the second period was a major breakthrough for the Oilers' special teams, but their penalty kill needs to improve after they have now allowed 14 PPGs in 12 playoff games in 2025.

In their 2024 meeting, the Oilers didn't concede a single PPG to the Stars over six games.

"It's a tough pill to swallow for sure," Skinner said. "You just can't be doing that, especially come playoff time and against a team like this. They know how to score goals and are a mature team, so I know that we have that in us as well, and we've done it many times."

"It's really hard for me to say. Goals have been going in a little bit differently and in different ways. It's a different series, so they show us other things, and tonight, a little bit of the east-to-west stuff kind of got us into trouble. I know that first goal from the point that I should have looked on the right side a little quicker, but obviously I didn't. That's a goal and momentum's on their side, so just little things like that. But as a PK, it's been up and down right now."

After taking the lead using the power play, the Stars extended their lead over half a period later at even strength, with Tyler Seguin getting credit for his second goal of the game by putting the last touch on Sam Steel's cut-back wrist shot during a three-on-two rush with under four minutes left.

Edmonton's push came late in the contest, but an Esa Lindell empty-netter sealed the Stars' comeback victory and a 1-0 series lead.