PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Stars (Game 4)

The Edmonton Oilers look to draw even with the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final on Wednesday night at Rogers Place.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Stars (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers aim to even up the Western Conference Final when they host the Dallas Stars in Game 4 at Rogers Place on Wednesday night.

Trailing 2-1 in the series, the Oilers are looking to embrace the opportunity ahead of them knowing how far they've come and that there’s still plenty of hockey to be played, along with more chances to gain back momentum from the Stars after coming up short in two close contests in Games 2 & 3.

“I think we all know dwelling on things in the playoffs is not the way to go, so we’ve got a great chance to tie up the series at home and that's the way we're looking at it,” Leon Draisaitl said on Tuesday.

"They defend a little bit differently, play a different style, but nothing that we can't handle as a group."

The Oilers weren’t quite able to seize back the momentum from the stars fast enough in their 5-3 defeat in Game 3 on Monday, giving up three goals in 3:33 of the second period to lose a 2-0 lead that was built off first-period goals from Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman.

Adam Henrique equalized late in the middle frame to get it to 3-3 before the intermission, but despite the Oilers outshooting the Stars 13-3 and rattling a post through Vincent Desharnais in the third, Jason Robertson’s bank shot off Stuart Skinner to secure his hat-trick went down as the game-winner, marking the first back-to-back losses of the playoffs for Edmonton.

Dallas improved to 6-1 on the road during the postseason with the victory, while Edmonton has now had two consecutive starts they've liked which haven't produced wins. The Oilers outshot the Stars 16-4 in the first period fo Game 2 as well, but they weren't able to find a lead in their eventual 3-1 defeat.

Monday's second-period shift in Game 3 proved too much to overcome after they failed to score a third-period goal for the third straight game in this series, and those moments are where the Oilers' players and the coaches believe can do a better job managing to lessen the impact from the Stars’ big pushes.

“It’s playoff hockey. There are momentum shifts,” Hyman said. “You just have to do a better job of managing them. It was a great first period for us. They push back as you'd expect any good team to do this far [in the playoffs], so we just didn't push back quick enough. They obviously got three. I liked the way we finished the second and gave ourselves a chance to go out and win a period, but we weren't able to do it.”

When teams are this close in quality and meeting this deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it's usually the team that gets to their game the fastest – and the longest – who comes out the winner. From past experience, the Oilers have a keen understanding of this concept.

“I think it's just establishing your game. I think that's the key,” Hyman added. “I think whoever gets to their game the longest tends to win it. In the first period, we were on our game. We were controlling the pace, we were controlling the game. Then, they pushed back and then they're imposing their game on us.”

"Dallas is a great team. Give them credit. They're a really good team, but we're a great team. We were with them the whole way. It's a goal game every single game. There are times where we absolutely dominate, and there are times in the game where they dominate, so there's nothing to be upset about. There's nothing to sulk about. We've been in this position before."

This series has proved to be very skill-driven in comparison to Edmonton's previous two against Los Angeles and Vancouver – notably on the blueline where Dallas has a much more mobile defence core helping lead the transition and put pucks into their forwards' hands.

"They stretch the rink. They trust their D to make a play, and their forwards are at the far blueline it seems, so they trust that their defence will either rim it out or elude one guy and make a long stretch pass," Hyman said. "Then they try to get behind us."

The Oilers realize against a team this skilled in Dallas, they're going to have to limit their mistakes moving forward.

"I think they're well-coached. They've got a lot of good hockey players right from top to bottom of the lineup and really no weaknesses," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They're pretty committed to playing the right way all the time, and for us to get our opportunities, we have to make a few plays.

"That being said, we've had our plays. We've had our opportunities. I think we can just maybe bear down a little bit more on scoring chances. There have been a lot of missed nets and missed passes."

To help deal with the Dallas threat, Knoblauch could elect to throw some speed back into the lineup in the form of Ryan McLeod – who sat out his first game this season as a healthy scratch in Game 3 – along with considering a few other options like Corey Perry and Philip Broberg.

"There's a good chance," Knoblauch said of McLeod. "We'll evaluate today, and his fresh legs and what he's provided us all year, there's a good chance. But I think overall, if we're putting him back in the lineup, we're going to have a tough decision on who we're going to take out, so we haven't committed to anything yet."