Oilers penalty kill sets stage for McDavid heroics in Game 1 of West Final

DALLAS -- Before Connor McDavid could stand up and be the hero for the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Thursday, he had to sit.

Seventeen seconds into the first overtime, he was sent to the penalty box, where he had to sweat out a four-minute, double-minor for high sticking.

His teammates on the penalty kill got the job done and he eventually repaid them with the winning goal 32 seconds into the second overtime, giving the Oilers a 3-2 victory against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

“It was long, really long, miserable, I hated every second of it,” McDavid said of sitting in the penalty box. “The guys did an amazing job. The penalty kill has just been amazing and to step in there for four minutes against a good power play, you can’t give those guys enough credit.”

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here Saturday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

McDavid was assessed the double minor 17 seconds into the first overtime after clipping Stars forward Matt Duchene in the face. Duchene had to leave the game temporarily to deal with a cut but returned before the end of overtime.

McDavid was not happy with being assessed the penalty; he was turning to chase the puck and caught Duchene with his stick.

“My thing was that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do there,” McDavid said. “I am going forward trying to play the puck, it feels like he’s holding my stick. I didn’t really feel the high stick at all. I think maybe even his face comes down on my stick, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. Maybe unlucky, I guess, but certainly glad the boys killed it off.”

The McDavid infraction was two of the five minor penalties the Oilers killed in the win.

The Oilers have gone five consecutive games without giving up a power-play goal, killing off their last 19 penalties. Edmonton has not given up a power-play goal since allowing two in a 4-3 loss in Game 3 against the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Second Round.

“They’re just so connected right now, so in sync and skating well,” McDavid said. “They (opponents) have the extra guy and sometimes you can’t even tell, they’re skating so well, and they’re so well connected. It’s fun to watch. They’ve been great for the whole playoffs here.”

The Oilers penalty kill consists of three separate forward pairings with defensemen Mattias Ekholm, Vincent Desharnais, Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci doing the heavy lifting. Forwards Derek Ryan, Mattias Janmark, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor Brown, Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod rotate up front.

“The PK is something that a lot of us take a lot of pride in,” Ryan said. “I think we’ve done a great job, our work ethic has gone up, our structure and details have gone up and it has to at this time of year. Usually your best penalty-killer is your goaltender and ‘Stu’ (Stuart Skinner) had done a great job of that, and the guys up front, they’ve done a good job as well.”

Skinner stopped all eight shots he faced on the power play and 31 in total in Game 1. He had some help as Stars forward Jason Robertson hit the goal post twice on the four-minute man-advantage.

“I think the thing is being able to get kills, but also at the right moment as well,” Skinner said. “That’s a massive moment at the start of overtime, not only being able to kill not just two minutes, but four minutes, so that’s a huge credit to the guys.

“There are so many details, so many little things that go into it, I think we just have to keep on taking steps.”

During the regular season, the Oilers had the 15th-ranked penalty kill in the NHL at 79.5 percent. The unit struggled early on when Edmonton got off to a 3-9-1 start, which led to coach Jay Woodcroft being fired and replaced by Kris Knoblauch.

Before Knoblauch arrived, the penalty kill was ranked 30th (70 percent); after his arrival it went up to 81.7 percent.

“Throughout the playoffs we’ve had a good rhythm on it, and I feel like it’s one of those things where you build momentum and you build confidence on the unit,” Ekholm said. “It’s almost like we have D-pairing and some forward pairings that have done it and done it with some success and has confidence on it. With that said, they had one go off the post, so it’s not always going to work out the way you want, but the kill did a heck of a job tonight and killed off five penalties.”

Helping the change in effectiveness on the penalty kill were the defined roles Knoblauch and his staff gave to some of his third- and fourth-line players. They have taken ownership of the responsibility and take pride in helping the team at the defensive end.

“There’s a lot of confidence, that’s the important thing, confidence and guys working together,” Knoblauch said. “You look at that first penalty kill and there’s some loose pucks, and the compete and energy to get to those loose pucks were pretty good. But the plays they made, short passes, and short shares they made to get the puck down the ice, there were three on that first penalty kill that I thought we perfect. When things are going well and you have the confidence, it just rolls.”