Stars ‘got to our game’ en route to tying series
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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
DALLAS — After finding a much-needed opening, the Dallas Stars made sure Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers couldn’t do the same.
Mason Marchment‘s early third-period goal allowed the Stars to gain a firm grip and limit the Oilers to just five shots in the final frame. The result was a 3-1 series-tying win Saturday in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals at the American Airlines Center.
“I think we just got to our game,” Marchment said about why the Stars were able to shut down the Oilers in the third. “When we play our game, we’re a hard team to play against when we do the right things at the right times.”
One of the conversations coming out of the Stars’ 3-2 double-overtime loss Thursday to the Oilers was how they let McDavid find the time and space for two openings, one of which led to the game-winning goal.
After Game 2, the discussion shifted to how the Stars tied the series while effectively silencing the four players who came into Saturday leading the NHL in postseason points.
McDavid, who is second with 23 points, was held to one shot. Draisaitl, who leads the playoffs with 25 points, had two shots and saw his 13-game points streak come to an end. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard, who has 21 points, finished with three shots. And as for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who has 17 points this postseason? He didn’t record a single shot over his 18:47 of ice time.
Piecing together what might have been the Stars’ strongest defensive performance of these playoffs, however, was something that took time.
Dallas took a 1-0 lead just 3:39 into the first period when captain Jamie Benn scored on a 2-on-1 only to then have Edmonton’s Connor Brown grab his first goal of the postseason less than a minute later.
Fending off the Oilers was the priority for the remainder of the first period, with Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger stopping 15 of the 16 shots he faced while his team mustered only four shots.
“I’d rather get work than sitting there and then all of a sudden, they get 2-on-1s and breakaways,” said Oettinger, who finished with 28 saves. “Sometimes, those are even harder — the games you get 16 shots and 16 chances compared to 40 shots.”
Going from four shots in the first to 11 shots in the second allowed the Stars to gradually find the offensive cohesion that allowed Ryan Suter to fire a shot from the left point that Marchment deflected under Stuart Skinner‘s right arm for a 2-1 lead less than four minutes into the third.
Even with their one-goal lead, the Stars remained aggressive by finishing with 10 shots while holding the Oilers to half that amount.
Goal prevention has become a hallmark of a Stars playoff run that has allowed them to reach the conference finals for a third time in five years.
They’ve allowed 2.33 goals per game, which is the fourth-lowest mark of any team in the playoffs and the lowest of the four remaining teams.
Stars coach Peter DeBoer said his team’s performance against the Oilers goes back to a lesson it learned in the second round when Dallas played the Colorado Avalanche. The Stars had a three-goal lead only to lose in overtime for what was then their sixth consecutive Game 1 loss to open a series.
“Getting the lead, it was critical. That allows you to stay above them and manage the puck and not try and push outside your comfort zone trying to score,” DeBoer explained. “I think since Game 1 against Colorado when we blew the 3-0 lead, I think we’ve been really locked in those situations and have done a really good job.”
What might have been the defining moment came in the final two minutes of the third. By that point, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch had already pulled Skinner, which led to Esa Lindell scoring an empty netter with 2:03 left in the third.
Knoblauch pulled Skinner again with 1:41 remaining to create a 6-on-5 that went to a 6-on-4 once Benn was called for hooking with 1:30 left. The Oilers had less than a minute with the two-skater advantage as Evander Kane received a slashing penalty with 47 seconds remaining.
The Oilers still had a 5-on-4 with the empty net yet struggled to not only get a shot on net but also faced difficulty getting set in the Stars’ zone. And when they did get a shot off, there was a Stars player in the way, which is why Dallas finished with 22 blocked shots.
Both Marchment and Oettinger were measured when talking about the Stars’ defensive effort.
Especially when it came to McDavid.
“Guys are choosing to be on the D-side and when you have the best player of all time probably on the other side, those are the decisions that can make or break with them scoring or not,” Oettinger said.
Marchment echoed a similar sentiment.
“Like Jake said, he’s the best player in the world,” Marchment said. “It’s going to take a full team effort, and I thought for the most part we did a great job tonight.”
The New York Rangers are in advanced contract talks to make former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan their next head coach, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes on Thursday.
The deal is expected to be one of the richest coaching contracts in NHL history, the sources said.
Sullivan would head to New York in a move that is coming together three days after he left his job with Pittsburgh, where he coached for 10 seasons and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
The Penguins have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons amid a retooling of the roster.
David Quinn, Sullivan’s top assistant in Pittsburgh, is not expected to join him in New York. Quinn will be a candidate for other head coaching vacancies, including Pittsburgh’s, according to sources.
John Tortorella is a strong possibility to rejoin the Rangers organization. Sullivan, Quinn and Tortorella were on the coaching staff for Team USA at Four Nations.
In New York, Sullivan would replace Peter Laviolette, who was fired after the Rangers didn’t make the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Sullivan was selected by the Rangers in the 1987 draft but never played for New York, choosing to stay in college at Boston University before going on to an 11-year NHL playing career with four teams.
Sullivan, 57, previously served as a Rangers assistant coach from 2009 to 2013 on Tortorella’s staff. He also was the head coach of the Boston Bruins for the 2003-04 and 2005-06 seasons.
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Ryan S. Clark
Winnipeg Jets coach Scott Arniel said Thursday that star center Mark Scheifele will not travel with team ahead of Game 6 against the St. Louis Blues.
Scheifele will remain in Winnipeg after he missed the second and third periods of his team’s 5-3 victory Wednesday against the Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.
“You’re hoping for the best that maybe he wakes up today and things are better,” Arniel told reporters before the team flight to St. Louis. “But right now, he won’t be making the trip, and we’ll just go day-to-day moving forward.”
With 13:51 remaining in the opening period, the Jets were in the Blues’ zone when Scheifele had just played the puck along the half wall. That’s when he was instantly checked by Blues captain Brayden Schenn. Scheifele appeared to be concentrating on the puck and looked as if he did not see Schenn, who connected with the top half of Scheifele’s chest and knocked him down to the ice.
Schenn was given a two-minute minor for interference and another two-minute minor for roughing.
A little more than 10 minutes later, Scheifele was involved in another physical sequence. He was just about to reach the Blues’ zone when forward Radek Faksa also checked him and appeared to have struck Scheifele in the same area as the previous hit from Schenn.
Scheifele finished the first period, but Arniel spoke to the officials as both teams were entering the dressing room before first intermission. Blues coach Jim Montgomery confirmed with reporters after the game that Arniel spoke to the officials about the Schenn hit before sharing his thoughts.
“Let’s make it clear: Fifty-five got hurt from the Faksa hit,” Montgomery said. “He played six minutes after the Schenn hit. He didn’t come back after he got rocked by Faksa.”
Upon hearing Montgomery’s comments, Arniel had some thoughts of his own.
“I didn’t know Monty got his medical degree and can say how our player got hurt. He’s way off base and should not make that comment,” Arniel told reporters. “There’s some things that have been going on in this series and that was a repeat of what we’ve seen before: A player leaving his feet and then hitting a player in a very unprotected spot. Like hitting him in the sense, almost blindsiding him. Not happy with how the call was made. A two-minute minor. Not even looking at it is what I was upset about.
“It is something we have talked to the league about for five games.”
On Thursday, Arniel was asked if Scheifele was in concussion protocol.
“I’m not going down that road,” Arniel said.
It’s possible that the Jets could once again turn to Vladislav Namestnikov like they did in Game 5 and elevate him to the top line. The second-line center would take Scheifele’s place on the first line alongside Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi.
Namestnikov, who had 11 goals and 38 points in 78 regular-season games, had his strongest game of the postseason in Game 5. He finished with a goal and two points while logging 17:15 of ice time.
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