DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars have taken pride in their road record, and for good reason. It's gotten them to where they are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now they need another great road game to stay alive.
"We've been the best road team in the League all year, the best road team in the playoffs all year," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Saturday. "So, we've got to go and win one road game."
The Stars will look to do that when they face the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
The Oilers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2.
The Stars were 26-10-5 away from American Airlines Center during the regular season, tied with the Florida Panthers for the most road wins. They're 6-2 on the road this postseason, a big difference from the 4-6 mark they have at home. And their road game, a simple approach with short shifts, has been a boon in earlier series.
They got out of a 2-0 hole in the first round against the Vegas Golden Knights by winning Games 3 and 4 in Las Vegas. They won all three road games against the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. They're 1-1 thus far on the road against the Oilers.
"Yeah, a lot of times this year when we've been up against the wall or put in tough spots, we've responded really well," Stars forward Sam Steel said. "So, I don't expect anything less from this group."
The Stars were getting the necessary response in the third period of Game 5 on Friday, which they lost 3-1. They were getting better scoring opportunities. They were playing with the desperate energy that they would've loved to have had sooner in the game.
It's something that they need moving forward.
"I mean, I think the third period was a lot better," defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. "We were forechecking a lot better and creating some turnovers in their end. That was the good part. We have to play like that the whole 60 minutes, forechecking them and try to create turnovers and getting some offensive zone time."
It's easy to say that, but it's another to do it. The Oilers are 5-3 at home. As hungry as the Stars are to continue the series, the Oilers will be just as eager to end it. They've outplayed the Stars for the better part of the past five periods, and look to continue that on Sunday.
"Just focused on playing with pace, playing fast and playing together," Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. "When we're playing connected and playing our best, we're a really tough team. I think we just did that for the last part of Game 4 (5-2 win) and then carried it into Game 5."
That's one more thing the Stars will need in Game 6: to be connected. Stars forward Matt Duchene mentioned how "disconnected" their offense has been through most of this series.
They have one goal in the past five periods.
"It looks like we were on our heels a little too much," Duchene said after Game 5. "Sometimes when you want something so bad, you want to try and be too perfect and I think we have to trust our game."
DeBoer stressed again on Saturday how tight Game 5 was. The Oilers didn't generate much either but obviously got a huge boost from scoring power-play goals in the first and second period.
"You have two of the three best records in the League. If you eliminate their first 10 games of the season, they might have won the Presidents' Trophy (for most regular-season points)," DeBoer said of the Oilers. "When you get teams at the end like that, there isn't a lot of room. We're dealing with (Connor) McDavid and (Leon) Draisaitl, two of the best players in the world, probably in the League. I think we're doing a pretty good job defensively. You can't do a really good job defensively and dominate offensively against those kinds of guys. It's not going to look like that.
"We're doing what we can. I still think that's a winnable game. If we shut down their power play, we had some looks, especially in the push in the third. That's a lot closer game than it felt, and I know how it felt to everyone. It felt like the same to us. There's frustration there, I get that, but it's closer than that feels."
It doesn't get much closer now for the Stars. They need to tap into the road game that's led to so much success this season. If not, they're going home for good.
"We put in a lot of work this year to get our game to the spot where home or on the road, we can come in and be confident and play a game that we don't beat ourselves, especially on the road," Steel said. "Yeah, we're confident in our road record."
