Blackhawks Daily: Oilers Send A Message To Stars

On Wednesday night, the Stanley Cup Playoffs featured Game Four of the Western Conference Finals. The Edmonton Oilers hosted the Dallas Stars.

In game three, Dallas won and took a 2-1 series lead which sent Edmonton into panic mode. They needed to win game four badly otherwise it would be tough to come back and win three in a row vs this Dallas team.

Things did not look good when the Stars scored two goals early in the game. Thanks to Wyatt Johnston and Esa Lindell, it was 2-0 Stars before the match was even six minutes old.

From there, it was all Oilers. Edmonton took over and nobody saw it coming. Before the Stars had a chance to show that the game was over, they folded. Ryan McLeod got the Oilers back in it at 13:30 of the first period. 

Not long after that, under three minutes of game clock later, Evan Bouchard tied it up. They went into the first intermission knotted at two. It was anyone’s game at that point. 

A lot of time passed in the second period but the Oilers got the go-ahead goal when Mattias Janmark made it 3-2 at 14:31. This was a short-handed goal that Edmonton desperately needed and it sent the momentum fully in their direction. 

Just over a minute later, Leon Draisaitl made it 4-2. The 2024 playoff leading scorer had slowed down a little bit in the conference finals but this should get him going again. They took that same lead into the second intermission. 

Although the Stars had some looks in the third, Stuart Skinner did what he needed to do and the Oilers got an empty netter from Mattias Ekholm. The 5-2 score held as the final. 

Now, we have two tied series on both sides of the NHL. The Eastern Conference Final will continue with game five on Thursday night. Either the New York Rangers or Florida Panthers will take a 3-2 series lead.

The same thing will happen in the Western Conference Final’s game five on Friday night. Either Edmonton or Dallas will take that 3-2 series lead with a chance to close it out.

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