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DALLAS — Improbably, almost impossibly, the Dallas Stars had scratched and clawed their way back into Game 5 of the Western Conference final.
They had shockingly benched their all-world goaltender, Jake Oettinger, after two quick goals. They had fallen behind by three goals 58 seconds after that. They had looked overwhelmed, overmatched and, well, over. But then Jason Robertson scored for Dallas, and American Airlines Center had a pulse again. And by the time Roope Hintz scored a power-play goal at 12:27 of the second period, it was the Oilers who were on their heels, getting bullied and overrun shift after shift after shift. Stuart Skinner was doing all he could to maintain a one-goal lead, but the equalizer seemed inevitable. Dallas was rocking, Edmonton was reeling.
Then, Connor McDavid happened.
McDavid shifted into warp speed, pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone off a Mattias Ekholm blocked shot, fended off a valiant defensive attempt by Hintz, settled the bouncing puck and beat Casey DeSmith with a full-speed backhand-to-forehand move to cut out the Stars’ heart and restore the Oilers’ two-goal lead. They beat the Stars 6-3 to return to the Stanley Cup Final.
It’s Edmonton-Florida, Part II, starting June 4 at Rogers Place.
The Panthers won last year’s matchup in unforgettable fashion, racing out to a 3-0 series lead before the Oilers rallied to force a Game 7, only to fall short in South Florida. The ruthless, physical Panthers will get an Oilers squad at full strength, with Ekholm back on the back end, Skinner emphatically taking back his net from Calvin Pickard, and both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on top of their games.
Earning that rematch looked like it would be easy early on in Game 5, but it was anything but. Even after McDavid’s goal made it 4-2 late in the second, Dallas responded. Robertson — invisible for the entire Winnipeg series and the first two games of this one — scored his second of the game and fourth in the last three games off a three-on-two in the opening minute of the third period to draw Dallas back within one. But Evander Kane banked a puck off Esa Lindell’s skate and past a bewildered DeSmith less than three minutes later to restore the two-goal lead.
GO FURTHER
Oilers ride fast start to Game 5 win, return to Stanley Cup Final: Takeaways
Benching Jake Oettinger seven minutes into an elimination game didn’t work out for Dallas.
Stars coach Pete DeBoer panicked. There’s no other way to look at this
"We had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with a lead, and obviously we were in a 2-0 hole right away," DeBoer said. "I didn't take that lightly and I didn't blame it all on Jake, but the reality is, if you go back to last year's playoffs, he's lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. So it was partly to spark our team and wake them up. And partly knowing that status quo had not been working, and that's a pretty big sample size."
That comment was almost as stunning as the decision. It’s one thing to send a message to your team, to try to wake them up, to try to defibrillate them with as powerful a shock as you can muster. It’s quite another to remove their security blanket seven minutes into the biggest game of the year. DeBoer felt like he had to try something. He just tried the wrong thing.
To lose a series to the Edmonton Oilers is nothing to be ashamed about. To lose with a willing and able Jake Oettinger on your bench is.
GO FURTHER
By pulling Jake Oettinger, Pete DeBoer tried to spark the Stars. Instead, he burned them
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Mavrik Bourque’s somewhat disappointing rookie season came to a very disappointing end in Game 5. With the Stars desperate for some offense, DeBoer inserted Bourque — the AHL’s leading scorer two years ago — into the lineup. The 23-year-old immediately rewarded DeBoer with one of the most careless stick penalties you’ll ever see, casually flinging his stick behind him as he turned from the boards toward center ice. He caught Evan Bouchard in the face, was sent to the penalty box, and could only watch as McDavid set up Perry for the power-play goal and a 1-0 lead.
Bourque wasn’t benched, for what it’s worth.
Perry’s goal, meanwhile, was his seventh of the playoffs — as many as Jason Robertson, Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment, Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov combined.
Ekholm returning was part of a plethora of lineup moves the Oilers have had to make over the last two games because of injuries.
Viktor Arvidsson came in for Game 4 after being scratched for five contests to fill in for Connor Brown. Jeff Skinner replaced Hyman in Game 5. It was the second postseason contest this spring for Skinner — and just the second of his career. Skinner coming in instead of the Oilers going with seven defensemen as Ekholm came back forced Troy Stecher out of the lineup.
It seemed like a lot of change. It didn’t bother McDavid.
“The players that are coming in,” he said before the game, “they’re around. They’re a part of it. It doesn’t feel all that different. They’re veteran guys. They’re guys that are going to step in and are going to play great. I expect nothing less. I don’t think it’s too big of a deal.”
Turns out, he was right.
Skinner scored his first-ever playoff goal in this, his 15th NHL season, as part of a scramble around the Stars’ net 8:07 into the game to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. His megawatt smile said it all.
“It’s nice to get in and try to contribute,” Skinner said in the morning. “Guys have been playing well and battling hard. They’ve got a good thing going. I’m trying to come in and help them out.”
Safe to say, he did just that.
Getting Ekholm back from a lower-body injury for his 2025 debut was so important for the Oilers. For one thing, it provided an emotional boost after it was announced the previous day that Zach Hyman was likely out for the rest of the playoffs due to injury. For another thing, Ekholm is a damn good player.
Coach Kris Knoblauch felt he was capable of settling into the lineup next to regular partner Evan Bouchard without missing much of a beat. Ekholm thought the same way.
“I don’t think I’m playing 26 minutes,” Ekholm said before the game, “but I do think I’m ready to play somewhat of a normal role.”
Ekholm played 15 minutes, 52 seconds, including 50 seconds on the penalty kill — a unit that could use him back helping out. His second period was particularly eventful.
Ekholm was called for interference on Mavrik Bourque at 11:05 during a frantic push from the Stars. That led to Hintz pulling the home team within a goal on the power play. That was the bad. The good: Ekholm blocking a Thomas Harley shot 14:20 into the period resulted in the puck jutting to center ice and a breakaway for McDavid. We all know how that ended up.
Overall, it felt like a solid first step for Ekholm and something to build on ahead of the Stanley Cup Final.
Everyone knows McDavid is a generational talent, someone who, at just 28 years old, already has a case for hockey’s Mount Rushmore. His performance in Game 5 provided further proof.
McDavid set up Perry to open the scoring on a power play 2:31 in. That gave him his 100th career postseason assist in just his 90th game, making him the second-fastest player to reach that mark behind Wayne Gretzky (70 games).
That’s an impressive stat from one of the greatest players of all time. He then followed that up with another thing for which he’s known: jaw-dropping individual efforts.
His goal, the Oilers’ fourth, was the type that would seem unbelievable if almost any other player had scored it.
Both points were critical to the win. The assist helped them get off and running. The goal put the game away.
Yes, Oettinger gave up two goals on two shots to open an elimination game. There’s no way around that. But one of them was on a point-blank one-timer by Corey Perry on the doorstep on a power play. The other one was a Mattias Janmark breakaway. Oettinger wasn’t the main culprit on either of them.
But after calling timeout, DeBoer recalled Oettinger and sent DeSmith over the boards. DeSmith hadn’t played in more than a month, his mop-up duty in Game 4 of the first round his only action since the end of the regular season. And 58 seconds into his stint, he lost sight of the puck during a goalmouth battle and got beaten by Jeff Skinner between the legs. Just like that, it was 3-0 Edmonton.
Would things have been different with Oettinger in net? We’ll never know. But the Stars never got closer than one goal, so the three goals that DeSmith gave up, on 20 shots, loomed large. Oettinger had been Dallas’ best and most reliable player in these playoffs, more so than even Mikko Rantanen, who started cold, ran red-hot for a handful of games, then iced over again. Oettinger was second among goalies that advanced past the second round with a .908 save percentage, and historically had gotten better when the series got later and the games got bigger.
DeBoer clearly was trying to send a message to his team and wake them up with the stunning switch, but removing their safety net — the ultimate calming presence — was a risky choice, to say the least. And it’s one that might haunt DeBoer for a while.
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Last year, the Edmonton Oilers refused to touch the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl. They lost to the Florida Panthers in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final.
This year is a different story as they look to change their luck.
"Pretty obvious, I think," Connor McDavid said postgame. "Don't touch it last year, don't win. Touch it this year, hopefully we win."
Pete DeBoer says he's not sure this was his best Stars team, even if it looked like it was on paper. But, "That Edmonton team's a lot better team than the one we played last year."
DeBoer: "I didn't blame it all on Jake (Oettinger), but the reality is if you go back to last year's playoffs, he's lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. … That's a pretty big sample size."
What's the message the Stars took from Pete DeBoer's benching of Jake Oettinger?
Jason Robertson: "We gotta step up. It’s unacceptable for us to hang him out like that. Whole playoffs, he’s been our guy, the whole season. Just unacceptable from us."
Here is the schedule for the 2025 Stanley Cup Final rematch between the Panthers and Oilers, beginning June 4 at Rogers Place.
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Pete DeBoer has been to the Western Conference Finals in six of the last seven seasons, coaching three different teams. He also hasn’t been to the Cup Final in that timeframe. I’m not sure which of those stats is more absurd.
Kasperi Kapanen scores his second empty-net goal of the series. That's it. The Edmonton Oilers are going back to the Stanley Cup Final.
That own goal has so thoroughly crushed the souls of Stars fans that even the traditional third-period Garth Brooks sing-along sounded sad.
Kane restores a two-goal lead for the Oilers. That one seemed lucky, a bank job off Lindell.
Own-goals and bad bounces have plagued the Stars throughout these playoffs, and that might prove to be the costliest one yet. Evander Kane banks a puck in off Esa Lindell's skate from behind the net. DeSmith had no idea where it was.
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Stuart Skinner did everything right on that play (he read the pass across, beat the pass on his skates, set his feet for the shot) and then somehow let that shot from the outside slip underneath his pads. Very disappointing for him and the Oilers, especially considering how well he has played tonight.
That was a bit of a softy for Skinner. Is his superhuman run over? The Stars are wearing the color of kryptonite, after all.
Skinner will want that one back. It's not over yet.
