GAME RECAP: Stars 5, Oilers 3

DALLAS, TX - An up-and-down contest at the American Airlines Center didn't end in Edmonton's favour.
A wild third period saw the Oilers score two goals in 43 seconds to take the lead after trailing through 40 minutes, but the hosts answered right back by striking twice in 24 seconds with only five minutes left in regulation to condemn the visitors to an eventual 5-3 defeat in the second of back-to-back games on Tuesday night.
Kailer Yamamoto opened the scoring with his sixth goal in seven games, while Evander Kane recorded his 14th goal of the campaign with a shorthanded marker that leveled the score at 2-2 in the first half of the final frame.
Leon Draisaitl notched his 42nd goal of the season, and Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves to fall to 23-10-3 this season.

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FIRST BLOOD

Yamamoto just continues to produce. On a wicked Evan Bouchard blast from the point, Yamamoto came through the middle of the Dallas zone and delivered a tip on the puck that hit the mesh and bounced out with venom to mark the 23-year-old's sixth goal in his last seven games for a total of six goals and four assists during that span.

THE STARS ALIGN

The second period saw the Stars flip the momentum after a good first frame from the Oilers. Jason Robertson slid one five-hole on Koskinen six-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame before Joe Pavelski cleaned up a loose puck on the power play 1:20 later after the Finnish netminder couldn't find the puck after parrying it away.
The Oilers didn't help their own case in the period by taking two unnecessary penalties, including Darnell Nurse earning a retaliatory penalty for an earlier hit on Jesse Puljujarvi that led to Pavelski's 24th goal of the season.

OILERS ANSWER BACK

On a broken play at the Oilers blueline with the Oilers shorthanded, Cody Ceci sent a short pass to McDavid before the captain took off with speed, burned a Dallas defender, but couldn't get a shot off with a Star strapped to his back. McDavid persisted down low and picked up a loose puck and fired a pass back to an approaching Kane, who put it past Jake Oettinger shorthanded for his 14th goal of the campaign.
Kane's shorthanded tally was critical, but the Oilers leveraged the momentum to score the go-ahead goal 43 seconds later after Devin Shore exited the box, took a pass at the Stars blueline, and sent it back across before the puck ricocheted off the German's leg and past Oettinger for his 42nd goal of the season.

STAR STRUCK

Just when the Oilers looked like they would do enough to flip the script and earn the two points, Dallas came storming back. Roope Hintz burned through the Oilers defence with speed and slid one five-hole on Koskinen before Tyler Seguin connected a back-hand pass to Denis Gurianov at the back post on a 2-on-1 just 23 seconds later. Utlimately, it was the decisive stretch in a crazy third period that would lead to the Stars picking up the two vital points in the playoff race.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Defenceman Kris Russell lost the puck at the Oilers blueline that was picked up by Jamie Benn and taken in on a breakaway, but Koskinen came up with a big save to bail out his defender by shutting the five-hole when Benn tried to slide it through the legs of the Finn just past the midway mark of the second period. Koskinen was a big reason for the Oilers only trailing by a goal heading into the third period.

TOP PERFORMER

McDavid set up two Oilers goals in the loss to reach 93 points in 63 games this season, including 35 goals and 58 assists.

PARTING WORDS

Nurse on the mental battle of a game where teams traded leads in the third period:
"It was hard-fought. There was a lot of swings in the game, but when there are five minutes left you can't put yourself in those types of situations where your goalie's got to make saves in the situations that we did. Koski played huge for us and we've got to be better for him in front of him, especially at the end of the game."
Draisaitl on the back-and-forth nature of Tuesday's defeat:
"I thought it was a good game. Obviously I think we could've been a bit sharper on those plays at the end there, but desperation levels are high with a lot of teams right now. Just a couple of mistakes that can't happen, but all in all, I thought it was a pretty solid effort again."

Coach Woodcroft on the Stars bouncing back, striking twice in 24 seconds, after the Oilers took the lead:
"I think it was two good hockey teams who trade punch for punch there. It's disappointing the way it ended for us. Obviously we'd like to have that last six minutes or so back, but not our finest hour in that last six minutes. We'll have to learn from it and move on."