EDMONTON, Alberta — Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz remains a game-time decision ahead of Game 4 of the Western Conference Final on Tuesday.

The club’s top skater has been sidelined since Game 2 in the series when he took a slash to the left leg from Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. Hintz took part in warmups before Game 3 on Sunday but exited early and was ruled out. He was back on the ice for Dallas’ optional practice on Monday and told reporters he was “feeling good” and “trying to do everything I can” to get back in for Game 4.

It was early in the third period of Game 2 when Hintz — parked in front of the Oilers’ net — shoved Nurse from behind, and the Oilers’ blueliner responded by swinging his stick at Hintz’s leg. Hintz was down on the ice for several minutes after that before being helped off by Lian Bichsel and Mikael Granlund.

Nurse received a two-minute penalty for the slash on Hintz but no supplementary discipline from the league. The blueliner addressed the incident for the first time Tuesday, explaining it didn’t come with malicious intent.

“I was backing up to net and I got shot in the back. And I think it was just a natural reaction [to respond],” Nurse said. “It’s probably a play that everyone in this room, whether you’re a net-front guy or D man, probably happens a dozen, two dozen times in a year. It’s unfortunate that I must have got [Hintz] in a bad spot. You don’t want to go out there and hurt anyone. But it was just one of those plays that happens so often.”

Having Hintz unavailable hurt the Stars in Game 3, a 6-1 drubbing by the Oilers that put Dallas in a 2-1 hole in the best-of-7 series. Hintz is the Stars’ second-leading scorer in the postseason, with 11 goals and 15 points through 15 games. He was hopeful when taking warmups Sunday that he’d feel good enough to get back in but a quick discussion with the training staff made it clear he wasn’t ready.

Coach Pete DeBoer has since classified Hintz’s status as day-to-day.

“Of course you want to go every night, but sometimes you just can’t,” said Hintz. “I don’t know how close I [was to playing]. But I have played many years [and I] know when it’s good and when it’s not. I should be good to know that [when] it comes to that decision.”

The Oilers will have some lineup changes of their own to sort through in Game 4. Connor Brown is out after he took a hit from Alexander Petrovic in Game 3; he’ll be replaced by the incoming Viktor Arvidsson. Calvin Pickard — injured in Edmonton’s second-round series against Vegas — will return to back up for Stuart Skinner. And Edmonton continues to wait on defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who is getting closer to coming back from a lower-body injury.

Puck drop for Game 4 is 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin is happy to never get another question about his team’s record-setting NHL playoff losing streak.

“Wonderful. That’s wonderful,” he said after Carolina’s 3-0 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night. “The guys in here worked hard tonight and that’s all you can ask for.”

The Hurricanes avoided a sweep by the Panthers, sending the series back to Raleigh, North Carolina, for Game 5 on Wednesday night. In the process, Carolina snapped a 15-game losing streak in the conference finals — the longest losing streak by a team in a playoff round other than the Stanley Cup Final in NHL history.

The Hurricanes’ last win in the Eastern Conference finals was in Game 7 against the Buffalo Sabres in 2006, a game that saw current Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour score the winning goal.

“It’s been a story. So, yeah, it’s nice to not have to talk about that [anymore],” Brind’Amour said.

When the streak began in 2009, Carolina captain Jordan Staal was helping the Pittsburgh Penguins to a conference finals sweep of the Hurricanes. He said the win over Florida in Game 4 showed how much pride was in the Canes’ locker room, as they refused to allow the Panthers to end their season.

“There’s a lot of guys that didn’t want to go home,” Staal said. “We know we have a huge hill to climb here. We’ve got a great team on the other side that is going to come back with a better effort. It’s a great challenge.”

Florida coach Paul Maurice, whose team had a chance to advance to a third straight Stanley Cup Final with a victory, gave credit to the Hurricanes for a solid and disruptive game while acknowledging that his team could have gotten to its own game better.

“I haven’t been nearly as down on that hockey team as you fine people have been over the last three games, and I won’t be as down on my team tonight,” he said. “[The Hurricanes] were good. They had good sticks. They had good quickness. You see that happen more often when the possessor of the puck’s feet are not moving.”

Three factors changed the vibe for Carolina in Game 4.

Goalie Frederik Andersen had his second shutout of the postseason after being pulled in Game 2 and benched for Game 3. Andersen was 7-2 with a .937 save percentage and a 1.36 goals-against average in nine playoff games before facing Florida. In two games against the Panthers, he gave up nine goals on 36 shots (.750, 5.54). Andersen had given up just 12 goals in his previous nine postseason games.

In Game 4, he was a great last line of defense, stopping all 20 shots.

After the game, Andersen declined to discuss being benched.

“I don’t really want to talk about my feelings. It’s not about that. It’s about the team and trying to put the best lineup on the ice that they feel like gets the job done. So I’m ready for when I’m called upon and glad to be able to play,” he said.

Andersen played a key role in another factor: the Carolina penalty kill. The Panthers were 4-for-5 on the power play in the first two games of the conference finals. The Hurricanes killed off four power plays in each of the past two games.

“Our goalie was great when he needed to be. The penalty kill was phenomenal,” Brind’Amour said. “We gave ourselves a chance, and that’s all we can ask.”

Perhaps most crucially, the Hurricanes scored the first goal. Carolina is now 6-0 when scoring first and 3-5 when it trails first in these playoffs. In the regular season, the Hurricanes were 30-7-2 when scoring first and 17-23-3 when trailing first.

They scored first and then played the type of close, low-scoring game they excel at. As winger Taylor Hall said before Game 4: “We’re thinking about winning the game 1-0. If it’s close, then we’re in a good spot.”

“It’s been a story. So, yeah, it’s nice to not have to talk about that [anymore].”

Rod Brind’Amour on Carolina snapping 15-game losing streak in conference finals

Forward Logan Stankoven opened the scoring at 10:45 of the second period, giving Carolina its first lead of the series. Rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin made a terrific backhand pass across the neutral zone to spring Stankoven ahead of the Panthers’ defense, and he beat goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

Stankoven said he called for the pass from Nikishin, who was playing in his third postseason game.

“The play happened so fast and it was a great feed by him to make that play off the turnover. It all starts with him,” said Stankoven, who was acquired from the Dallas Stars in the Mikko Rantanen deadline trade.

It remained 1-0 until Sebastian Aho and Staal added empty-net goals in the last 2:11 for the 3-0 win.

Slavin said Game 4 was in the Carolina’s comfort zone.

“A thousand percent. It was 1-0 up until the end there. You can’t get any tighter than that,” he said.

With that, the Hurricanes ended their historic losing streak and turned their attention to making more NHL history. Only four teams in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs have rallied to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0, although two have done it in the past 15 years (Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and Los Angeles Kings in 2014).

“You watched the way we played tonight. Everyone put their heart on the line,” Slavin said. “We know we’ve got a good group in here. We know we’ve got all the pieces. We just have to bring it every night.”

EDMONTON, Alberta — If the Edmonton Oilers were handing out superlatives, then Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be their (not-so) secret weapon.

Don’t take just anyone’s word for it, though. It’s the sort of distinction only a team’s captain — and arguably the NHL’s best player — can hand out in a statement that seemed to reverberate among those following the Oilers’ playoff run.

“He’s our Swiss Army knife,” Connor McDavid said of Nugent-Hopkins after the Oilers’ 6-1 drubbing of the Dallas Stars in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals Sunday. “And he’s playing really, really well. Just solid overall, making plays, doing his thing. He’s asked to do everything every single night. He’s playing great.”

Evander Kane — a frequent linemate of Nugent-Hopkins’ — can’t hide a wry smile when asked about his teammate’s play. He caught McDavid’s declaration, and doubled down on how it applies to Nugent-Hopkins’ dominance in the postseason so far.

“I’ve heard it [everywhere] probably the last 24 hours, the term ‘Swiss Army knife,'” Kane said Monday. “So I’ll just repeat it. [Nugent-Hopkins] is a player that is very versatile. He sees the ice well, has good poise out there to make plays. He’s had a really, really good playoffs. He’s had an even better [Western Conference finals] series. So if we can continue to get that type of game from him, obviously, that helps our team greatly.”

Nugent-Hopkins’ latest performance was so strong that it shoved him further into the spotlight on a star-studded Oilers team. Edmonton’s longest-tenured skater was at his best in Sunday’s Game 3, collecting three assists on highlight reel-worthy playmaking that included an eye-popping give-and-go sequence with McDavid in the first period.

The veteran has two goals and seven points in the conference finals, and five goals and 16 points in 14 playoff games to date, fourth most on the team. Nugent-Hopkins’ formidable series has put him in excellent company, where he has joined Wayne Gretzky as only the second player in franchise history to register multiple points in the first three games of an NHL conference final or semifinal.

Not bad for a guy who’d have every right to be exhausted. Nugent-Hopkins is your classic overachiever, willing and usually able to do just about anything but put on goalie pads and play in net.

He has been a top-line winger alongside McDavid. A second-line shutdown center with Kane. A fixture on the Oilers’ top power-play unit. An invaluable penalty killer.

Nugent-Hopkins is, in short, every coach’s dream skater — something coach Kris Knobloch hasn’t exactly kept hidden.

“Leon [Draisaitl] joked last year he’s my favorite player,” Knobloch said of Nugent-Hopkins. “But any time you have a player that can do so much, as a coach you’re very thankful for it. You want players with flexibility. You can use them in all different situations.

“He’ll do a great job. You see it in the third period [of Game 3], he was playing with Kane and [Zach] Hyman. They were a good line and it starts with the centerman.”

IT’S FORTUNATE THAT THOSE around Nugent-Hopkins are willing to prop him up because he’s not taking any credit for the profound effect he has had on the Oilers’ postseason. And any praise won’t go to his head.

“I think we’re all just doing our thing and trying to chip in where we can,” Nugent-Hopkins said when asked about his impact. “Our line got a couple [on Sunday] and it’s nice to capitalize on your chances and see it go in.”

The success Nugent-Hopkins and the Oilers are enjoying has been a long time coming, and took the veteran wading through infamously trying times to finally hit. Drafted No. 1 by Edmonton in 2011, Nugent-Hopkins endured lean seasons with the Oilers that included only one playoff berth in the first eight years of his career. From there, Edmonton bowed out in the opening round of the postseason in 2020 and 2021.

But the Oilers’ stock soon rose, and Edmonton battled its way to the Stanley Cup Final last season, falling just short in a Game 7 loss to Florida. Nugent-Hopkins had seven goals and 22 points in that postseason, a run the club is trying to replicate as it holds a 2-1 series lead over Dallas heading into Tuesday’s Game 4.

Though Nugent-Hopkins has stayed steady through the Oilers’ ups and downs, the fact that he’s better than ever at 32 is no surprise to those who have watched him mature over the years.

“I’ve always been a huge fan,” said Stuart Skinner, who made his debut with the Oilers in the 2020-21 season. “He’s been able to be a two-way player [in all three phases] of the ice. He’s just that type of guy. That’s why he’s such a huge part of our team, huge part of the organization.”

Consider how Nugent-Hopkins helped turn the Oilers’ recent Achilles’ heel into a positive. Edmonton had Game 1 against Dallas in hand until a disastrous third period in which the Stars scored three power-play goals in less than six minutes on their way to a come-from-behind victory. Nugent-Hopkins was on the ice for only one of those goals against, but since then he has helped stabilize the Oilers’ penalty kill, which has gone 4-for-4 in killing off Dallas power plays.

“It’s a lot of the same things,” Nugent-Hopkins said of getting the penalty kill on track. “Staying with it, staying confident. Obviously they stung us there, cost us in the first game; we wanted to respond, and I think we’ve done a good job since.”

Only Nugent-Hopkins knows for sure how he can balance all the roles and responsibilities he receives without sacrificing quality in any of them. That’s the magic of a Swiss Army knife after all — its outward appearance disguises the many uses contained within. And in Nugent-Hopkins’ case, those capabilities range from dazzling displays on the ice to what happens behind closed doors.

That’s where the real magic happens.

“He’s a leader in here,” Skinner said. “The work ethic he shows every day, what he says in the room and [how] he does it with a lot of composure too. It’s very impressive.”