The Dallas Stars performed mediocrely in the first 40 minutes of Game 1, against the Edmonton Oilers, followed by the best third stage of the playoffs, with a 6-3 victory.
Of course, the 7th round of the 1st round against the Colorado Avalanche was very special, but it was thanks to Mikko Rantanen’s last half of the third stage. From the third, everyone was involved, scoring five goals instead of three. It won’t be as famous as Round 1 and Round 7, but it’s memorable.
Related: Star scored 5 goals in third place, beat the Oilers 6-3 in Game 1
These are three harvests from Dallas at night.
The stars fall, but never come out
If the hockey game is 40 minutes, the star will lose the first game. From the start, the Oilers were much better than them and led 3-1 after two periods. But you don’t have to know the score to know that the stars are losing another game on the ice at home. Edmonton is faster and their chances are more dangerous. The Oilers performed enough to win, but they lost. The stars didn’t perform enough to win, but they did. Sometimes that’s it.
The most impressive part of this five-ball period is that it starts immediately. Miro Heiskanen ranked 3-2 in just 32 seconds in the final stage. Three minutes later, the game tied with another powerful goal from Mikael Granlund. The Oilers parade to the free throw box continued, and Matt Duchene took advantage of the advantage to give the stars a 4-3 lead.
The fourth goal scored 5:58, which means the Stars were 3-1 behind third place and led just six minutes later. There was a 14-minute game and the game was far from over, but it looked like the Oilers wouldn’t make a comeback. The stars played the role of the rest of the period with intentional and determination. They won the hockey battle and closed it defensively and won another goal at 16:02 to permanently eliminate the game.
Special teams and depth scores are stars
Before this series, I noticed four things the stars need to dial the oilers. Special teams and depth scores are two of them, they collided under the stars for a historic period.
First, have the power to exert. Entering the series, the stars ranked third in the playoffs with a success rate of 30.8%, while the Oilers ranked 14th in the playoffs and 66.7% in two rounds with a shooting percentage of 66.7%, the Oilers performed better at 5-on-5, and their depth scores were more effective than the stars. Jake Oettinger is the best goalkeeper in this series, but Stuart Skinner can turn it off when needed. Power play against penalty kills is a field where stars can take advantage of the Oilers, they played on Wednesday night.
The stars have a strong chance of playing in the first 40 minutes of the game and it looks terrible. Their area entries are not clear and are not implemented whenever they are set up on the offensive end. On the other hand, the Oilers team was 2-2 to 2 periods. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored 6:08 in the second stage, which not only gave the Oilers the lead, but they brought the momentum into another goal less than two minutes later.
Related: 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs Conference Center
Decline 3-1 into the third inning and with the rest of the power game, the stars need to score. Well, they scored in the next five games, the top three in the power play, took advantage of their oilers and quickly. All oil workers’ fines are careless and unnecessary. This should be their warning. The game could have ended with relatively easy ease. Instead, the Oilers beat the puck with a superior 5-on-5 to get the stars off the hook.
Even in a powerful game, the depth of the stars has intensified. In rounds 1 and 2, it’s hard for the stars to attack from anyone in Finland or anyone not called Mikko Rantanen. It worked, but it was unsustainable. On Wednesday night, their depth finally broke through.
Tyler Seguin scored twice, Heiskanen shot with a perfect wrist, and the screened Skinner started his comeback. Yes, he is from Finland, but he is injured, he is a defender, so he escapes. The fourth goal came from the players we’ve been waiting for. After being banned in all playoffs, Duchene finally made his way to the board. Meanwhile, Lantanan has one point. This is exactly what the stars need. They took over the game as a team, leaving Rantanin on his shoulders for one night. It’s nice to know that they’re bringing their back pocket to them, but that should be more.
Heiskanen is back
Heiskanen, perhaps the star’s all-around player, returned to Game 4 against the Winnipeg Jets in the second round. In that game, he had 14:52 ice time. In Game 5, he had 18:33 and in Game 6, he had 23:40. In each game, he gets better gradually as we see him continue to shake and rust and regain his game. Game 6 is the best he looks so far.
Wednesday night, it’s like the height we can expect for Heiskanen this spring. It’s hard to imagine he’ll be 100% himself by next season – he missed a lot of time and went into the middle of the playoffs – but in the first game, Heiskanen showed us what the stars were missing. He moved the puck, defended well in his area, distributed clear passes in power games, and most importantly, he got the scoring table.
Until Mattias Ekholm returned to the Oilers, Heiskanen was the best defender in the series. Even then, his offensive game was much better than Ekholm’s. If he continues to play like this, he will be a differentiator.
Xingxing: Don’t do it again
OK, Dallas. You get rid of that, but it’s better not to do it again. We’ve seen Dallas come back from a multi-goal deficit before, which is great, but the Oilers are the defending Western Conference champion and beat the stars in a straight win last spring, shattering the 2-1 series lead and defeating the stars in six games. Yes, the team is different, but history still exists.
There is a time for the stars to remember in Game 1 that this is not the muscles that the stars have shown. However, they cannot develop the habit of sleepwalking for 40 minutes. With their lineage, the Oilers will make sure that the third stage will not happen again. Game 2 was held Friday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
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