GAME RECAP: Stars 7, Oilers 2

DALLAS, TX – These surging Stars were too much to handle.

The Dallas Stars scored three first-period goals and never looked back on their way to extending their point streak to 14 games (13-0-1) on Thursday night, sweeping the season series with a 7-2 victory at American Airlines Center in the first of a back-to-back for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Stars scored three goals in the opening 20 minutes as part of five unanswered before the Oilers responded with back-to-back tallies in the second period, receiving Evan Bouchard's 19th goal to extend his point streak to nine games and Jason Dickinson's first tuck in Blue & Orange before things started to boil over.

"I think we gave them a lot of free offence, and they're a pretty good team off the rush," Hyman said. "So when you do that, it's tough to climb out of a hole."

Tensions flared following the second-period buzzer from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and more rough stuff ensued in the final stanza, which resulted in Jamie Benn scoring his second goal on the power play early in the third before Matt Duchene added another late to cap off the 7-2 victory for Dallas.

Forward Jason Robertson also tallied two goals for the Stars, while the Oilers finished with 22 penalty minutes, with 16 of those coming off scrums after whistles.

"When it's like that, you're frustrated, and that's a way to try and get some emotion to the game and stick up for each other," Hyman said. "But we have to be a lot better."

Edmonton will finish its back-to-back and four-game road trip on Friday against the St. Louis Blues.

FIRST PERIOD

Early goals allowed by the Oilers continue to be a factor in creating an uphill battle after Jamie Benn's tally 1:23 into the contest kicked off the scoring in a three-goal first period from the Stars, who led 3-0 after 20 minutes as they looked to sweep the season series.

Less than a minute and a half off the opening faceoff, Benn made slight contact with netminder Tristan Jarry in the crease before collecting himself and Miro Heiskanen's low shot off the back boards and putting it away in front for the early 1-0 lead.

It's the second straight game the Oilers have given up the opening goal in the first two minutes after conceding only 32 seconds into Tuesday's 4-3 win over the Avalanche.

Edmonton was getting outshot 8-1 by Dallas midway through the frame before falling behind by a pair with 6:51 left before the intermission when Sam Steel converted a back-door feed from Matt Duchene on a two-on-one.

Edmonton's best chance of the period at the back post for Vasily Podkolzin soon after needed an important intervention from defenceman Nils Sundqvist, stopping the Russian forward from cutting across goalie Jake Oettinger for the easy tap-in before it slowly went off the far post.

"In the first period, we didn't have many opportunities to play in the offensive zone," Knoblauch said. "We wanted to stick-handle through. They are a very defensively structured team. They had numbers back. It's tough to get through there, and even when we didn't have much speed to go get those pucks, we needed to simplify it a little more forecheck and force them into making some mistakes."

Just over two minutes after the Stars made it 2-0, a giveaway by Evan Bouchard inside the Dallas blueline led to another odd-man rush for the Stars, where Jason Roberston took it all the way himself and scored unassisted with a snap shot that hit the left post before rebounding in off the back of Jarry to make it three.

It was Dallas' second 3-0 lead on the Oilers in the first period this season after they scored four in their second of three meetings back on Nov. 28 in an 8-3 victory at Rogers Place.

SECOND PERIOD

Despite getting two goals back after the Stars extended their lead to 5-0 in a 32-second span of the middle frame, tensions boiled over late in the period for the Oilers when their leaders took exception after the final seconds before the intermission.

Wyatt Johnston converted five-hole under Jarry on the power play before Robertson made things even more lopsided with a spin-around shot less than half a minute later that found the back of the net for his second goal of the night, making it five for Dallas just past the six-minute mark of the period.

A response did come from the Oilers 1:38 after the Stars made it five when Evan Bouchard wristed his 19th goal of the season past Oettinger to extend his point streak to nine games (4G, 12A), while a secondary assist for Leon Draisaitl gives him five goals and 10 assists over a seven-game run.

A first goal in Blue & Orange for forward Jason Dickinson arrived almost four minutes later to make it 5-2 when the newcomer put the perfect deflection on Mattias Ekholm's low shot to change its trajectory under the crossbar, cutting the deficit to three.

It could've been a lot more interesting if they'd converted on their next power play, but the Stars had the best chance shorthanded before frustrations for the Oilers & McDavid started to boil over when he went after Tyler Myers near the benches to draw a roughing call.

Another unconverted power play from the Oilers and a crossbar from Adam Henrique took us to the intermission, but not before McDavid tried to send a message by getting into a scrum in the corner with Justin Hryckowian after Arttu Hyry hit Draisaitl with the puck as time expired.

"He's the last guy that should be doing that, to be honest," Hyman said. "So when things are going like that, I think that there are ways to be engaged, and I think you saw him trying to pull our group back into the fight and Leon as well. We can do a better job as a team to push back, and we did, but it wasn't enough, obviously."

Draisaitl was also tagged with a slashing penalty to put the Oilers on the kill to begin the third period, down 5-2 to the Stars.

"Obviously, [McDavid's] very frustrated in trying to fire up our team, and they didn't like the shot at Leon, where they're trying to clear the puck and they just roughed it up a little bit," Knoblauch said. "But there's a lot of fire from our leaders, and we need that."

THIRD PERIOD

After Jamie Benn scored his second with a power-play marker 1:32 into the final frame, there was more physicality before things wrapped up with the final buzzer when Josh Samanski's inadvertent trip on Hryckowian prompted another melee in the corner.

Benn restored the four-goal lead with a far-side snipe into the top shelf with the man advantage early in the frame, and that sunk Edmonton's slim hopes of a comeback.

Seven and a half minutes later, Samanski accidentally took the feet out from under Hryckowian as they both lined up hits going into the corner, and that prompted Colin Blackwell to come to the defence of his teammate, and vice versa for Trent Frederic, who earned a roughing call for throwing a few punches at Hryckowian.

After a penalty-filled final 10 minutes for the Oilers, Matt Duchene was able to add another for the Stars to make it a 7-2 final.