Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars scores his third goal during the third period in Game Three of the Western Conference Final of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on May 27, 2024 in Edmonton.Codie McLachlan/Getty Images
Jason Robertson scored three times on Monday as the Stars beat the Oilers 5-3 in Game 3 of their third-round playoff series at Rogers Place.
Robertson, who hadn’t scored in 10 previous contests, got the winner when he squeezed a puck through Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner’s pad with 8:06 left in the third period. Robertson scored twice in the second, once on a slap shot and again when he flipped a puck over Skinner in a scrum outside the crease.
Dallas can now take control of the best-of-seven with another victory here on Wednesday. The Stars are now 6-1 on the road in the post-season after having the NHL’s best record as a visitor during the regular season.
Edmonton took an early 2-0 lead, fell behind 3-2, tied it at 3-3 with 52.5 seconds left in the second before succumbing in the third.
Rogers Place was predictably deafening at the start, so loud that the players had trouble hearing the whistles.
Held without a point by Dallas in a 3-1 loss on Saturday, Connor McDavid came out blazing. On some of his early shifts he skated at nearly 40 kilometres per hour.
Barely two minutes in, McDavid found Zach Hyman on the doorstep and the former Maple Leaf poked it into the net for a 1-0 lead. It was Hyman’s 13th goal in 15 playoff games and 67th of the season and came with an assist awarded to Evan Bouchard.
Jake Oettinger made a lunging glove save to stop a possible goal by Leon Draisaitl but not long after that McDavid snapped a shot that caromed off Tyler Seguin’s stick for a 2-0 lead.
Edmonton played tight defence and outshot Dallas 10-3 in the first 20 minutes. It has only allowed the Stars to place 14 shots on the net in the three first periods combined.
Dallas turned the tables on the Oilers in the second. The Stars pinned them in their own zone for extended periods and eventually broke through with three goals in a span of 3 minutes 33 seconds. Robertson got two and Wyatt Johnson the other. It was the latter’s team-leading eighth of the post-season for Johnson.
The Stars’ defence smothered Edmonton’s offence in the second 20 minutes. McDavid got its first shot of the second period with 7:11 left. Itb had a stretch of 16 minutes 27 seconds without a shot over the first and second periods.
Adam Henrique, who missed seven games with an ankle injury, tied it at 3-3 on a deflection off a pass from Connor Brown within the final minute.
Dallas coach Pete DeBoer joked Monday that he was stricken with PTSD upon returning to Rogers Place for this year’s third round.
During the pandemic In 2020, the Stars lost to Tampa Bay in the Stanley Cup finals in Edmonton. The city also hosted the Western Conference playoffs during which a secure “bubble” was constructed around Rogers Place and the host hotels.
“It was a great experience, and an experience I would never sign up to do again,” DeBoer said. “It was a social experiment. We were essentially locked up for 60 days. I wish in hindsight that I had taken notes. I think I could have written a pretty good book. Hopefully that never happens again.”
At 26-10-5 the Stars had the NHL’s best road record during the regular season and entered the third round 5-1 as a visitor. They have 11 players age 30 or over.
“I think we have a veteran team that isn’t intimidated by visiting rinks or the atmosphere or the situation,” DeBoer said. “There is a calmness to our leadership group which kind of bleeds into the rest of the group.”
Roope Hintz, who had missed four previous games due to injury, returned to the lineup and contributed two assists. The Finnish forward had 30 goals during the regular season and two goals and four assists in 11 playoff games.
“He is a guy that helps drive our team,” said Matt Duchene, the veteran centre who is in first season with Dallas. “He is an elite player. He does everything well. He is a horse out there.”
Edmonton made just the one change to its lineup, inserting Henrique in place of Ryan McLeod. The latter has done well on the penalty kill unit but has gone 14 games without a point.
Acquired from Anaheim ahead of the trade deadline, Henrique incurred an ankle injury against Los Angeles in the first round and was able to play in only one contest in the second.
“It’s more nerve-racking watching than playing,” the 34-year-old said earlier in the day. “But seeing everybody come together and push through and battle, it was certainly great to watch, and to see the team continue to get better. I’ve been itching to be a part of that.”
The Oilers hoped to take advantage of playing at home on Monday and Wednesday. They went 28-9-4 at home during the regular season, the third-best record in the league.
Edmonton won Game 1 in overtime at American Airlines Centre but lost 3-1 on Saturday. When a best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, the victor of Game 3 has gone on to the series two-thirds of the time.
Seven of the Oilers’ last 10 games have been decided by one goal.
“That’s the playoffs for you,” Mattias Ekholm, an Edmonton defenceman, said earlier Monday. “Usually games are going to be tight going into the third period and you have to dig that goal out.
“Dallas did that in Game 2. It is up to us to make sure we end up on the right side in Game 3. You are going to get scored on in the playoffs. That’s just a fact. It’s all about how you respond to it, how you adjust to it without wavering too much from your plan.”
Dallas held Draisaitl and McDavid without a point in Game 2. Draisaitl and McDavid lead all players with 25 points during the post-season.
“I still think we can do a better job,” DeBoer said. “Even though we held them off the scoresheet, I didn’t think the details in our defensive game were as good as they could have been. They got too many looks for me.”
Dallas failed to score on a late power play, after which the Oilers pulled Skinner with 2:36 to go. Miro Heiskanen then got an empty netter to clinch the win with 1:52 remaining.
Dallas is now in a position to take command and the Oilers are one loss away from falling into a 3-1 hole.
“I thought we had a real good start but then we had a bad 10 to 15 minutes and let them get back in the game,” McDavid said. “Playoff games have big momentum swings and you to wrestle them back. And we weren’t able to do it.
“We let one get away there, obviously. It stings every time.”