GAME RECAP: Stars 8, Oilers 3

EDMONTON, AB – Connor Clattenburg scored his first career NHL goal, but the Edmonton Oilers were thoroughly beaten by the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night in an 8-3 defeat at Rogers Place, dropping their overall record to 10-10-5 this season.

The Stars had seven different players record multiple points in the victory, including their top line of Sam Steel (1G, 1A), Jamie Benn (1G, 1A) and Wyatt Johnston (1G, 3A) that combined for eight points and two of Dallas' four first-period goals that shot them out to an early 4-0 lead after the first period.

Despite missing Mikko Rantanen and Thomas Harley, the Stars received offence from more than a dozen players, with Jason Robertson registering a goal and two assists and Nathan Bastian also contributing two goals to do the heavy lifting for Dallas in their second win over the Oilers this season.

"There are a lot of things I'm concerned about," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "You go through the checklist of what we're doing – our breakouts, our forecheck, our defending, our emotion – and there are a lot of things to fix. We have to prioritize what we address. We can't fix everything immediately, but there'll be some deep discussions in the next couple of days about what we need to do."

"We've got a couple of days to take some time and assess what we're doing. We've been playing so many games lately that we haven't had any practice time. We do have some time this week to address things."

Connor Clattenburg notched his first career NHL goal 4:39 into the second period, and Evan Bouchard and Jack Roslovic each added tallies for the Oilers in the final frame, but the Stars responded with two more from Justin Hryckowian and Nathan Bastian to close out the 8-3 final scoreline.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner was lifted following the first period after allowing four goals on eight shots, giving way to Calvin Pickard, who made 18 saves on 22 shots over the final two periods.

The Oilers will have three days of practice to regroup for Saturday's matinée meeting with the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.

DALLAS STARTS OFF HOT

Making their first trip back to Rogers Place since their 4-1 loss to the Oilers in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final last season, the Stars scored on their first shot of the night to take an early 1-0 lead en route to a dominant start in the opening 20 minutes.

Less than four minutes into regulation, the Stars forechecked through their top line of Sam Steel, Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn, winning the puck off Evan Bouchard below the goal line before Johnston picked it up behind the Oilers' net and threw it out front for Benn to put it past Skinner for the early lead.

The Oilers nearly responded on their own first opportunity when Roslovic was sprung on a breakaway less than a minute later, but Jake Oettinger parried it away with his blocker before later using his right pad on the same shift to deny Andrew Mangiapane off the rush and keep Dallas ahead.

That was the closest the Oilers got in the frame before the Stars took off with three more goals before the intermission, continuing at 9:09 of the frame on the power play when Roope Hintz cleaned up his own rebound in front to make it 2-0 after Skinner made the stellar first save.

The Oilers lost another puck battle near the benches with five-and-a-half minutes remaining, when Brett Kulak was outmanned and had the puck chipped past him at the blueline by Radek Faksa to create a two-on-one for the Stars, where Nathan Bastian roofed a top-shelf snipe to make it 3-0.

Just 3:22 later, it was Mattias Ekholm whose giveaway led to the Stars taking a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes, throwing it up the boards to Johnston to take over possession in the neutral zone before crossing the blueline and feeding Benn in the slot for a chance that bounced behind Skinner for Steel to clean up easily.

Without two of their Olympic-level stars available in Mikko Rantanen (suspension) and Thomas Harley (injury), the Stars received two points apiece from their top-liners during the first period on Tuesday, plus points from Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz to carry the load offensively.

"At the end of the road trip, we had some tough games, and I thought the guys dug in and played pretty well," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Tonight, right from the first shift, we were flat. We had the puck, and we didn't make several plays and ended up getting stuck in there. That first shift was pretty much a precursor to how we played the rest of the game, and when we made mistakes, there were some bad ones.

"I don't want to put this on our goalies, but there were some crucial mistakes where we left them exposed."

CON-CLAT-ULATIONS

One of the lone bright spots for the Oilers on a challenging night was a first-NHL goal for Connor Clattenburg, whose celebrations at 14:21 of the second period after tucking home his first in the League gave the bench & the fans inside Rogers Place something to cheer about down 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Making his Oil Country debut, the 2024 fifth-round pick was parked in front of the Dallas crease to put away the rebound from Ty Emberson's point shot for his first-career NHL tally, whacking it past Oettinger and wheeling towards the boards in celebration by dropping to one knee and letting go a huge fist pump.

Clattenburg is the first Oiler to wear the No. 64 since Nail Yakupov during the 2016-16 season, and the fourth Oilers skater this season to score his first career NHL goal after Matt Savoie, David Tomasek and Isaac Howard.

A former 10th-round pick in the OHL Draft and captain in junior with the Flint Firebirds, Clattenburg is the fourth Oiler this season to score his first goal – joining Matt Savoie, David Tomasek, and Isaac Howard – and the first Oiler to wear the number 64 since Nail Yakupov during the 2015-16 season.

The momentum lasted nearly 10 minutes before the Oilers ran into penalty trouble, going down five-on-three for 38 seconds near the 14-minute mark on hooking and holding infractions to Zach Hyman and Adam Henrique.

The Stars took their timeout to set up the two-man advantage that they made quick work of just 13 seconds after the ensuing faceoff, converting on a tap-in for Jason Robertson at the right post before Johnston added another with the man advantage 1:35 later to make it 6-1 for the Stars through two periods.

STARS STAY HOT, SO DOES ROSLOVIC

Goals from Evan Bouchard and Jack Roslovic in the final frame did little for the Oilers in making up any ground on the Stars, who followed each of them up with goals from Justin Hryckowian and Nathan Bastian, respectively, to leave Rogers Place with the 8-3 victory on Tuesday night.

Bouchard ripped one of his patented Bouch Bombs™️ through a screen set in front by Zach Hyman after Vasily Podkolzin bounced a pass off the boards to him at the blueline, setting up the defenceman's fourth goal of the season that made it 6-2 only 1:23 into the third period.

But the Stars got it back almost six minutes later, utilizing traffic in front of Calvin Pickard – who replaced Stuart Skinner in goal after the first period – to score on a rebound from Hryckowian to restore the lead to five with over half of the final frame still to play.

"Our goaltenders need to play better, also, but I think it also has to start with how we defend," Knoblauch said. "Our forwards, defence, and goalies, everybody has to step up, and we can't play a perfect game. We are going to give up chances, we are going to give up power plays where they're going to get some odd-man situations, so we do need some goaltenders step up, and we asked the goalies to do that.

"Picks gave us an outstanding game in Tampa Bay, but the 20 players that put on the uniform each night for each game need to play better. Also, our coaches need to step up as well."

Roslovic reached double-digit goals this season at 9:31 of the frame, when a shot off the post from Connor McDavid fell right onto his tape off the rush to quickly fire the rebound past Oettinger to give him seven goals and three assists over his last nine games.

With 4:21 left in regulation, Bastian added his second goal of the night off another turnover below the goal line from the Oilers, leading to Faksa pushing it in front and Bastian beating Pickard for the final action of an 8-3 final scoreline at Rogers Place.

"Well, it's very concerning," Draisaitl said. "Everything is very concerning, though. We're nearly 30 games in and still don't have it down or know what we are. So I don't really know what to say. It's just not good enough right now."