GAME RECAP: Oilers 2, Stars 1 (Game 6)

EDMONTON, AB – We're going to the Stanley Cup Final to play for it all.

The ultimate goal is in sight.

On the back of a monstrous 34-save performance from Stuart Skinner and power-play goals from Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman, the Edmonton Oilers punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the eighth time in franchise history, defeating the Stars 2-1 at Rogers Place on Sunday night to eliminate Dallas with a four-games-to-two series victory.

Connor McDavid opened the scoring with arguably the greatest goal he's ever scored in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the Oilers' first power play in the first period. Zach Hyman then cashed in with his League-leading 14th goal of the postseason over half a period later off the dish from his captain to produce a 2-0 lead for the Blue & Orange through 20 minutes.

Evan Bouchard added two assists on Edmonton's opening two goals to pass Dallas' Miro Heiskanen for the fifth-most points by a defenceman in playoff history with his 27th helper, extending his points lead among defencemen in the playoffs to an uncatchable 27 points (6G, 21A).

But what can you say about Stuart Skinner?

"First off, he was unbelievable tonight. We're not sitting up here talking about a win if it wasn't for him. We're on a plane to Dallas if it wasn't for Stu," McDavid said. "He's gone through lots. He's still such a young goalie, but he's gone through so much.

"I keep saying this – a lot of people doubted him. A lot of people don't say the nicest things about him, but he is an elite goaltender in this League. He really is and he showed that tonight. He showed that over the course of the year in the playoffs. He loves proving people wrong, and he certainly did that."

The Edmonton-born netminder stopped 34-of-35 shots from Dallas as they pressed hard over the final 40 minutes to keep their season alive, ultimately cutting into the Blue & Orange's lead with just over half the third period remaining, but the 25-year-old wouldn't be denied, stretching his unbeaten streak in elimination games over his young career to 3-0 and helping push his hometown team into their first Stanley Cup Final since 2006.

"If you told me this five or six years ago, I'd probably tell you're crazy," he said. "But honestly, moments like this, it's really hard to say. It's very cool and it's a lot more than cool, but it's very exciting and I'm very fortunate and grateful to be a part of such an amazing club."

In addition to the power play going a perfect 2-for-2, the penalty kill continued its dominance by going 3-for-3 to extend its perfect streak to a new franchise record of 28 straight kills, including a crucial stop in the opening five minutes of the third period.

"That's so important. Everybody has a piece of the piece of the pie here. Everybody's got a job to do," McDavid said. "Maybe for guys who aren't on the power play, they're on the penalty kill and those guys have done an unbelievable job of buying in and doing an amazing job on the kill. It's been fun to watch. I got a front-row seat to it. The kill has been so fun to watch."

The Oilers earned their NHL-best eighth Clarence S. Campbell Bowl as champions of the Western Conference, but McDavid & the Oilers didn't lift the trophy as they posed with the hardware before celebrating with one another and exiting Rogers Place to raucous cheers from the crowd inside the building, around ICE District and across Oil Country.

"Unbelievable," Nugent-Hopkins said. "It's hard to put into words, really. They just keep getting louder and louder every year, every series and every game. It was nice to be able to do this in front of them tonight, and we just rallied behind their support every night."

The Oilers will face the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, starting Saturday at FLA Live Arena down in Sunrise.

FIRST PERIOD

Special team, special players.

There's not much else to be said right now.

The Oilers have been leveraging their special teams' contributions over their last two victories to pull away from the Stars and put them on the precipice of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 18 years with a 3-2 series lead. That trend continued into the first 20 minutes of Sunday's elimination Game 6 at Rogers Place, with both the penalty kill and power play coming up clutch to stake Edmonton to a 2-0 lead despite being outshot by Dallas 12-3 in the opening frame.

Not to be forgotten were the individual impacts being provided by their best players, beginning with their incredible captain in No. 97 who got things going in Game 6 with arguably the best playoff goal he's ever scored for the Blue & Orange.

"Yeah, I was nice," Draisaitl said before a laugh from the media. "I've seen it before, but yeah, it was nice. There's one player in the world that can make plays like that and make things like that happen. I don't know what to say. He knows what I think of him. I think everybody does, so I'll just leave it at that.

"There's just one player in the world that can make things like that happen."

After the Oilers went to the power play following a Tanev tripping penalty on Zach Hyman, McDavid pulled off a magical toe drag as he walked in from the bottom of the left circle to completely undress one of the world's best defencemen in Miro Heiskanen before going top shelf with his backhand for one of the all-time greatest McDavid goals during the biggest game of his career to date.

"I got the puck from Leo up high, and I like being on that left side," McDavid said. "I like being on that left flank and tried to get to the middle of the rink, and that was the best way I thought possible and just tried to get a backhand on it."

A too many men penalty to the Oilers was killed off before the midway mark before they were back on the power play with Ryan Suter heading to the box for slashing Cody Ceci in the hands after the defenceman found himself picking up a loose puck and going in a short and unexpected breakaway.

The power play wasn't set up in the offensive zone like their opening goal, but instead, their next opportunity would come off the transition from a cleared puck by the Stars that was sent up to the blueline for Hyman to push off a pass to McDavid as he crossed into the Dallas zone.

The pass wasn't there for McDavid until his patience resulted in a lane to Hyman in the slot to open up, leading to the captain offloading an elevated pass to his right before Hyman dropped to one knee and placed his snapshot bar off the crossbar and in for a 2-0 Oilers lead at 4:18 of the first period.

The quick dish by McDavid and finish by Hyman made it 2-for-2 for Edmonton on the power play after taking only two shots, while moving to 4-for-11 (36.2 percent) with the man advantage over the last three games after opening 0-for-6 to start the series.

For all the power play's recent success, the penalty kill has been doing it all series and then some, reaching a new franchise record with 27 straight kills dating back to Game 4 of the Second Round against the Canucks by turning aside a late high-sticking penalty to Brett Kulak against Joe Pavelski.

Skinner made three of his 12 saves in the first period while shorthanded as Edmonton was outshot 12-3 in the opening 20 minutes, but they were playing solid defensively in front of their netminder and winning the required battles to build themselves a 2-0 lead going into the middle frame.

SECOND PERIOD

Play defence and defend that lead.

The Oilers didn't generate a whole lot offensively during the middle stanza, improving on their three first-period shots but only by a slim margin by taking five in the middle frame to trail 21-8 through the first two periods, but the battles were being won and the job was getting closer to complete.

The Stars began turning up their five-on-five pressure that was forcing the Oilers into turnovers, making for some longer shifts for their skaters and leading to Dallas getting their best chance to cut into the lead when Roope Hintz struck the post on a dangerous look from the slot with 7:48 left in the period.

Despite the dangerous chance, the Oilers held the Stars to only four shots in the final 13:41 of the period and were content to fight through the pressure defensively and get pucks in deep to go to work on the forecheck, leaving Dallas to attack in waves against five defenders when they did get the puck up ice.

Into the intermission with their 2-0 lead intact, there were 20 hard miles to go to book their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.

THIRD PERIOD

With the crowd at Rogers Place on its feet, the Oilers held on to launch themselves into their franchise's eighth Stanley Cup Final on the back of their team's commitment to defending and their unwavering goaltender who was fighting for his hometown from between the pipes.

“There’s been lots of growing pains, for sure, lots of lessons, and obviously it feels great to be in this position,” McDavid said. “This was always part of the plan, and it feels good to be here today.”

Dallas peppered the Edmonton shot-stopper by a 14-2 margin and managed to break him down to cut into the lead at 2-1 with 10:42 left in Game 6, getting a goal back after Tyler Seguin took a wide shot and collected his own rebound before throwing it in front for Mason Marchment to shovel it into the net as he crashed the blue paint.

Time was dwindling and the pressure was mounting, but the resilience of the Oilers has been tried and tested for this moment.

"They pushed all game after we got two, but Stu made the big saves when he needed to," Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "We did a pretty good job of limiting their high-quality scoring chances, but having said that, he still made some unbelievable saves to maintain the lead there for us."

The Stars pulled their netminder with 2:10 remaining and had a dangerous opportunity to equalize with just over a minute left when Thomas Harley had it open up for him at the top of the right circle for a shot that was turned away by the sliding leg of Corey Perry, who laid out to send it out of play with a critical block.

"Every playoff series you play, you gain experience and you're able to play in moments like today when we're getting absolutely shelled, and it's 2-1 with ten minutes left," Hyman said. "Maybe another year we crack and they score, but not this year. I think Skinny stands on his head. We have guys throwing their body in front of pucks, and it's not the prettiest win, but I think these are the games that we hadn't won in the past, so it's a huge win."

After the puck was cleared into the Stars' zone with over 20 seconds left on the clock, the Stars had one last look that went wide before it went up to the blueline where time ran down on Dallas' season and Edmonton's 2-1 victory in Sunday's elimination Game 6, securing the Oilers the 4-2 series victory and their spot in the Stanley Cup Final.

"We've closed out big games. It hasn't always been the prettiest, but we got it done and that's really all that matters. I thought we gave up a couple looks coming down the stretch that we'd like to not give up, but guys sacrificing their body with big blocks or Stu making timely saves or whatever it was, we got it done and that's all that really matters. We'll move on from this one tonight."

"We're not done here," Mattias Ekholm added. "This is just one step in the right direction for us. I do think we've learned some lessons, but we're going to have to do it again. We're going to have to get four more wins. That's the goal, so we still have lots to prove."