Mason Marchment and the Dallas Stars approached the second game of the Western Conference Final with the mindset of a Game 7, even though it was only the beginning of the series and it took them some time to fully adopt that mentality.
Despite allowing an early goal by Stars captain Jamie Benn, Jake Oettinger held off a barrage of shots from Edmonton in the first period. Eventually, Marchment scored in the third period to secure a 3-1 victory Saturday night, leveling the series.
“We’re so close, so it’s just got to be a Game 7 mentality for the rest of this ride here,” Marchment commented.
“The first period, for whatever reason, we were tentative. We had talked about playing with the Game 7 mindset, and I think our intentions were in the right place,” noted Stars coach Pete DeBoer.
“We looked like we were waiting for something to happen. We kind of regrouped at the end of the first. … I loved the second and third, thought they were excellent.”
Marchment broke the 1-1 tie at 3:41 of the third period by redirecting a shot from Ryan Suter, sending the puck past defenseman Vincent Deshamais and then between the right arm and body of goalie Stuart Skinner.
Benn scored his fourth goal of the playoffs and helped set up Esa Lindell’s empty-net goal with 2:03 remaining. Wyatt Johnston contributed with two assists.
Oettinger made 28 saves, including 16 in the first period when Dallas faced a flurry of shots, getting outshot 17-4.
He made a crucial glove save on Mattias Ekholm’s shot with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the game, and then handled Ekholm’s long shot about 30 seconds later.
“Obviously, we had a lot of shots and all that… It wasn’t like we were dominated or anything,” Ekholm said. “Going into the third, you know it’s going to be one of those, it’s a shot from the blue line, it’s a tip, it’s a greasy goal if you will, but they obviously got it.”
Marchment scored after Suter took a shot from along the boards just inside the blue line. “As a defenseman you’re just trying to get pucks down there to your guys. You’re almost shooting at your guys,” Suter said.
This was the seventh consecutive time the Stars entered Game 2 of a best-of-seven playoff series after a loss, including all three games this postseason.
Marchment’s last goal came in their playoff opener against Vegas on April 22. He left Game 2 with an undisclosed injury and missed six games before returning in Game 2 of the second round against Colorado.
“There’s not many better feelings than scoring in a playoff game,” Marchment expressed. “We’ll take that one and … move on to the next one, right. We’ve got a big game coming up, so worry about that.”
Connor Brown scored for Edmonton. Skinner, who had won the previous three games since sitting two games in middle of the last round, stopped 22 shots.
Game 3 is Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won 4-3 in their only trip there this season. That was Nov. 2 during the Oilers’ 3-9-1 start that led to Jay Woodcroft getting fired as coach and replaced by Kris Knoblauch.
The Oilers had gone ahead in this series on Connor McDavid’s goal 32 seconds into double overtime for a 3-2 win in Game 1 on Thursday.
Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl was scoreless, ending his playoff-opening points streak ended at 13 games. That was one short of matching Mark Messier’s franchise record set in 1988.
The teams traded goals 44 seconds apart early in the first period. Benn scored on with a wrister from the top of the right circle that flew across the front of Skinner and in the lower left corner of the net 3:39 into the game.
Edmonton got even when Brown scored on a rebound of Cody Ceci’s shot after he had initially gotten the puck from Brown. It was Brown’s first goal this postseason, and the only other one he has came in 2018 for Toronto against Boston.
That is the only one that got by the busy Oettinger. “If he doesn’t play the way he does in the first, we’re in a big hole and we might not get out of it,” DeBoer said. “Jake was unbelievable,” Benn said. “We don’t win that game obviously without Jake tonight.”
