EDMONTON, ALBERTA — Connor McDavid gave Edmonton momentum with an early goal and an assist, Stuart Skinner stopped 34 shots for his hometown team and the Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Sunday night, capping off an incredible run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Zach Hyman also scored on a first-period power play, as did McDavid, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers, who won the Western Conference in six games and will compete for the Cup for the first time since 2006.
The Panthers will travel to Florida for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which begins Saturday night. The Panthers will play in just their third championship series after being soundly defeated by Colorado in 1996 and losing five games to Las Vegas last year.
Mason Marchment scored midway through the third period and Jake Oettinger stopped eight shots for the Stars, who finished the regular season with the second-best record in the NHL with 113 points, just one behind the New York Rangers in the race for the Presidents Trophy.
But the Stars, like the Rangers, squandered a 2-1 lead in the conference finals after Dallas scored five goals in Game 3 to take a series lead, but the Stars only managed to score four goals combined in the next three games.
Ottinger was benched with about 2:20 remaining in the game, but the Stars managed just two shots the rest of the way in a desperate attempt to tie the game and extend the series.
Edmonton accomplished something truly remarkable just by making it to the Cup Final, reaching the title series despite finishing 10 points out of a playoff spot during the regular season. Entering play on November 24, the Oilers were 5-12-1, 10 points behind Seattle and St. Louis for the final wild-card spot in the West and 19 points behind Vegas for the conference lead.
Those days are now forgotten.
Just weeks after taking over as head coach from Chris Knobloch to replace Jay Woodcroft, who was fired after a 3-9-1 record, the Oilers have won eight straight games and begun their long climb out of the bottom of the NHL.
The Oilers started off with an eight-game winning streak, then immediately after that eight-game winning streak ended they went on a 16-game winning streak and were the best team in the NHL for the remainder of the regular season, with 44 wins, 15 losses and five ties the rest of the way, leading the league in points (239) and goal differential (plus-76) during that span.
And now the final awaits.
Edmonton is just the third team in NHL history to reach the finals after finishing 10 or more points behind the playoff spots — Toronto in 1958-59 and St. Louis in 2018-19 — and the Blues went on to win the Cup that season.
The Oilers managed just three shots in the first period of Game 6. And that was enough.
McDavid opened the scoring with a stunning goal, shooting through traffic and past Oettinger for a 1-0 lead, then scored again on a power play late in the first period with Hyman in the slot. Dallas was up 6-3 in shots at that point, but Edmonton was up 2-0 and the Oilers were on their way to the win.
