GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Stars 2 (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers showed their resolve on Wednesday by scoring five unanswered goals to overturn an early two-goal deficit and claim a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final, evening the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

"I think every win gives you a little bit more belief, but I said a couple of days ago that I think every team at this point of the year that's still playing has a lot of belief in what they do. I think we're obviously one of those teams," Leon Draisaitl said.

"We know how good we can be, and when we put everything together, we're a really hard team to beat, but so are all the other three teams that are still playing. Four really good teams are still playing, and we're one of them."

After the Stars held the early momentum and scored twice in the opening 5:29 of regulation, the Oilers tied the game off tallies from Ryan McLeod and Evan Bouchard near the end of the first period before they took over during a 51-second stretch of the middle frame behind Mattias Janmark's short-handed goal and Leon Draisaitl's 10th of the playoffs.

"It's funny in the playoffs how the psychology works," Janmark said. "It was a really flat start from us, but right after they scored that second one, we said we were in that position two days ago and 'Let's flip the script on them.'

"You get the first one, and then you get rolling from there. It's hard to explain why it works that way, but it's nice to be able to do that."

The Oilers pushed their successful penalty-kill streak to 23 in a row on a crucial kill late in the third period, with Janmark's short-handed goal ultimately going down as the game-winner before Mattias Ekholm added an empty-net goal in the final two minutes of regulation.

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves on 22 shots to pick up the victory, and captain Connor McDavid chipped in with three assists.

The Oilers received secondary contributions from all over on Wednesday night, including Ryan McLeod and Corey Perry chipping in with points after being re-inserted into the lineup for Edmonton's Game 4 victory.

"When you do get pulled out of the lineup, it's a tough pill to swallow, but you put that aside and when you get your name does get called again, you come in and just work hard," Perry said. "For myself and Clouder, it was about being hard on the puck, winning our battles and that's all we're trying to do."

The series shifts back to Dallas for Game 5 at American Airlines Center on Friday.

FIRST PERIOD

After watching how the opening 20 minutes unfolded at Rogers Place on Wednesday night, there appears to be no end in sight to these momentum shifts we've seen dominate the first four games of the series.

"You've seen this right through the series where both teams have absolutely dominated, and then, the other team has dominated," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "It's been back and forth, and we didn't have our start. When you're down 2-0 in a game like this, it's hard to overcome, but I think we just got back the way we were supposed to be playing."

The Stars got out to an early lead only 58 seconds into the match off an aired-out pass from Jamie Benn that found Wyatt Johnston behind Edmonton's defence, creating an odd-man rush for the young centre to take it himself and snipe the opening goal over the glove of Stuart Skinner on Dallas' first shot.

Early agony for Edmonton was extended just over four and a half minutes later on a seemingly harmless wrist shot from the point by Esa Lindell that bounced off the back of Darnell Nurse before finding the gap in between Skinner's right pad and his blocker, stunning the Oil Country crowd as Dallas a two-goal lead.

"I was thinking it was going to be a long night," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "It didn't look very good. Things weren't going our way. They looked much sharper making plays."

But this is playoff hockey, and the fightback for Edmonton started with winning the next battle and stacking a good shift on another good shift, which inevitably caused momentum to sway back into the hands of the Blue & Orange.

"I think we had guys jumping over the boards trying to get momentum back," Brown added. "You don't need to make a flashy play or anything – just simple and hard, win your battles, win your races, and we were able to take the momentum back."

"I think maybe we were a little sleepy for a couple minutes there," Draisaitl said. "I would say maybe a little unfortunate too on the second one, but we found our legs, got going a little bit, started to play our game and stayed fresh and rolled lines. We're a tough team to handle when we play that way."

Ryan McLeod brought some energy back to the bowl in side Rogers Place when he marked his return to the lineup by putting away a loose puck that was left sitting on the left pad of Jake Oettinger, who wasn't able to spot it before it was flipped into the back of the net by McLeod for his first goal of the playoffs – cutting the Dallas lead to 2-1 with 6:30 left in the period.

Corey Perry, who was also re-added along with McLeod on the second line with Draisaitl, picked up the primary assist as part of an impactful night in the lineup.

"Yeah, really good. It was obviously very smart," Draisaitl said of Knoblauch's decision-making. "[Perry] has I don't know how many playoff games under his belt, so he brings a lot of maturity and is a very smart hockey player. I thought all the guys that came in, which is not easy to do at this time of year, did a great job tonight."

"It's not easy," Brown said of Knoblauch. "It's his first time in the playoffs and he's making gutsy calls, and credit to the guys. It's not easy to come from the press box and right onto the second line playing on Leo's wing, and they did an unbelievable job. That line was the best line tonight for us, and it was a gutsy win. When you get trust from your coach, it empowers you."

The Oilers continued to hold onto momentum and found the tying goal 2:47 later when Zach Hyman won a stick battle in the neutral zone against Miro Heiskanen to create an opportunity for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to win the puck and offload a pass to his captain inside the blueline of the Stars' zone.

McDavid attacked from the right circle and sent a low shot off Oettinger's right pad that was kicked into the oncoming path of Bouchard, who buried the chance with authority to notch his sixth goal of the playoffs and tie the Game at 2-2 before the first intermission.

Bouchard picked up his 23rd point of the playoffs and now stands alone in second place for points from an Oilers defenceman in a single playoff run, while his 17 assists are already tied for second in franchise history with Charlie Huddy for the most assists in a single postseason.

SECOND PERIOD

Since the start, the theme of this series has been whoever has momentum on their side the most, and for the longest, is more than likely coming away with the victory.

During the middle frame, the Oilers stepped up to take matters into their own hands off the strength of the first special-teams tally from either side over the first four games of the series, and it didn't come from where you'd expect it to.

The Oilers' penalty kill has been nothing short of terrific for them in the 2024 playoffs, killing off a stretch of 23 straight penalties after getting their second successful kill of the game almost 13 minutes into the middle frame after one of their best penalty-killers Derek Ryan was called for holding Johnston below the goal line.

Darnell Nurse blocked a shot in front on the penalty kill and got it up to Connor Brown to create a short-handed three-on-one, where Brown drew in the reach of defenceman Thomas Harley before saucing a pass over to Janmark to snap the go-ahead goal over the sliding Oettinger for the 3-2 advantage.

"We feel good about each other on that kill. We trust in each other," Brown said. "Unreal play by Doc there to win that battle and spring us. There's a lot to be said about Darnell. Everyone and their dog was coming at him this morning. Two tough bounces to start the game, and he settles in and plays probably his best game of the playoffs and leads us to a victory. That's character right there."

Janmark's SHG was his second goal of the playoffs and his second-career playoff point on the penalty kill, with his only one prior to Wednesday being an assist in 2019 he recorded when he was a member of the Stars' organization.

"We've been confident lately and have had a good kill in this series, so we've got them a bit on their heels," Janmark said. "We played to our structure on the goal, and we got a big block from Nurse and then Brownie picked it up. We were able to go the other way."

Janmark and Brown connected on almost the identical play – albeit at even strength – during Game 5 of the Second Round in Vancouver.

"As far as the goals we've scored, I think we're both pretty good skaters, so if we get an opportunity to get an odd-man rush, we can take advantage of it that way," Janmark said. "He's made two good passes to me and I've been able to capitalize, so I'm just trying to work the hard way and our skating can help us find open space like that."

Rogers Place went into liftoff only 51 seconds later when McDavid poked the puck free to Draisaitl in the neutral zone to create a quick odd-man rush with Hyman where the German worked a give-and-go with the winger before snapping one past Oettinger from between the hashmarks for the 4-2 lead.

Draisaitl had only one goal in this series before he broke things open for the Oilers in the second period, but with his 10th of the postseason on Wednesday, the German now has two goals and seven assists in games that follow a stretch of two in a row where he didn't produce any points, which has happened only three times in his career.

THIRD PERIOD

The game quieted down to a slower pace in the final frame as the Oilers worked to shut down any chance the Stars had to steal back momentum like they did in Game 3 earlier this week with a three-goal third period.

But not today.

"Really good. We rolled lines, everyone stayed fresh, stayed above them and made the right decisions at the lines," Draisaitl said of Edmonton's period. "I don't know. What did we give up? Maybe one look on the power play in the slot? So very mature and very well done."

Dallas outshot the Oilers 8-5 over the final 20 minutes and had the chance on the power play in the final five minutes to pull themselves back with a goal, but the successful streak of Edmonton penalty kills reached 23 straight and leave the Stars with no choice but to pull their goaltender with a two-goal gap in between them and salvaging a result.

"We got a 4-2 lead and we took a penalty, and this is their opportunity to get back in the game," Knoblauch said. "It's their opportunity to make it 4-3 with plenty of time left on the clock, and we come up with another kill. No matter who we've had in the lineup, we've had a lot of guys in and out as those penalty-killers, but everyone's stepped up and taken a lot of pride in that job."

Mattias Ekholm aired out a full-ice shot into the empty net with 1:53 in regulation, putting a stamp on Edmonton's victory in Game 4 to send us back to Texas with an even series in the Western Conference Final.