Sunday (June 2) was a night many years in the making for the Edmonton Oilers, who defeated the Dallas Stars 2-1 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final before an electric crowd at Rogers Place.
Related: Skinner, McDavid Dominate as Oilers Clinch Trip to Stanley Cup Final
With the victory, Edmonton wins the best-of-seven series, 4-2, and advances to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006. Not only that, but Sunday was the first time in 36 years that the Oilers clinched the conference championship on home ice. Heck, it was even the first time since 1997 that Edmonton eliminated Dallas from the postseason, ending a streak of losing five straight Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Stars.
Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman scored power-play goals for the Oilers in the first period, while Mason Marchment scored the Stars’ lone goal with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game. Edmonton was badly outshot, 35-10, but got a standout performance between the pipes from netminder Stuart Skinner, who outduelled Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.
Here’s a look at everything that went into the Oilers’ biggest victory in a generation, as Edmonton booked its ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for a match-up with the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers.
Oilers Triumph Despite Being Badly Outshot
McDavid got Edmonton on the board with a highlight-reel goal just 4:17 into the game, a massive play that put his team in the driver’s seat. Then Hyman scored with 4:18 remaining in the first period to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead, and that was all the offence that the Oilers would need. Edmonton found a way to hold onto its lead right to the finish, despite the incredible margin in shots favouring Dallas.
With just 10 shots, Edmonton tied the Stanley Cup Playoffs record for fewest shots on goal by a team in a win. Before Sunday, the Oilers had played 3,800 games combined in the regular season and postseason. And they had never had fewer than 11 shots on goal in any of them.
The Oilers were outplayed on Sunday, but they found a way to close it out. It was not pretty, nor was it the kind of game they would have won in years prior. What it was is the kind of game that champions find a way to win.
“Sometimes in the playoffs you need to win some games that you maybe don’t necessarily deserve to win,” Edmonton blueliner Mattias Ekholm, one of a handful of Oilers players who have previously been to the Stanley Cup Final, said while speaking to media after the game.
“Do I think we deserved this one? I think they maybe were a little bit better, but the situation and how the game started (with the Oilers taking an early 2-0 lead) plays into that. That’s the playoffs, you got to just dig it out sometimes, and tonight I thought we did a good job of that.”
Edmonton did, indeed, dig it out on Sunday. Credit goes to their defensive play, but especially to the efforts of Skinner.
Skinner Proves He’s a Winner
Since returning to the lineup after sitting out Games 4 and 5 of Round 2 of the Vancouver Canucks, Skinner has elevated his game to a level many questioned whether the goalie was capable of.
Skinner’s doubters weren’t wrong to feel that way. In the first 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games of his career, the Edmonton native had a goals-against average (GAA) of 3.49 and a save percentage (SV%) of .881.
In his last eight games, starting with Game 6 against the Canucks on May 18, Skinner has a 1.81 GAA and .920 SV% while posting a record of 6-2.
“I can’t say enough good things (about Skinner),” McDavid said during a post-game interview with Sportsnet on the ice amid absolute bedlam in Rogers Place. “A lot of people doubted him, a lot of people says things about him, but he’s done nothing but stand in there for us and stand tall. I’m so happy for him.”
The Oilers don’t win Game 6 without Skinner standing on his head. Throughout the McDavid era, the critique has been that for all of Edmonton’s offensive brilliance, they lack the goaltending required to win the Stanley Cup. What Skinner demonstrated Sunday was Stanley Cup-calibre goaltending.
Special Teams Make the Difference for Oilers
While the Oilers’ power play produced both their goals on this monumental night, their penalty-kill made history by killing off all opportunities with the man advantage for Dallas.
Edmonton has now killed off 28 consecutive penalties, surpassing the old franchise playoff record of 25 straight successful penalty kills set in 1998, and hasn’t allowed a power-play goal in 10 consecutive games, which is also a franchise record and tied for the second-longest single-postseason streak in NHL history.
Special teams were the difference for Edmonton against the Stars. Dallas actually outscored Edmonton 12-11 at even-strength in the series, but the Oilers outscored Dallas 5-0 on special teams.
Edmonton now has both the top-ranked power-play (19/51 for 37.3%) and penalty-kill (46 of 49 for 93.9%) by percentage in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Oilers Deserved to Win Series
The Oilers may have stolen Game 6, but on balance, they were undeniably the better team of the series: Over the six games, they led for a total of 188:45, compared to just 50:27 that the Stars held the lead. The Oilers never trailed over the final eight periods of the series, and outscored Dallas 10-2 after falling behind 2-0 early in Game 4.
The Oilers have now won six consecutive postseason games when they have a chance to eliminate their opponent and are 7-1 in closeout games in the playoffs since drafting McDavid first overall in 2015. And now, for the first time in the McDavid era, Edmonton will play for the Stanley Cup.
The championship series between the Oilers and Panthers opens at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday (June 8). It will be Edmonton’s first time taking the ice for the Stanley Cup Final since June 19, 2006 (a 3-1 loss in Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes), when McDavid was just nine years old.