The Oilers look to respond in the second of back-to-back games against the Stars on Tuesday
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The Edmonton Oilers conclude a back-to-back set on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center against the Dallas Stars.
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The Blues score late in a 3-2 win over the Oilers on Monday
DALLAS, TX – Looking for a response in the Lone Star State.
After last night’s late winner from the St. Louis Blues, the Edmonton Oilers will look to finish their back-to-back set with a victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Tuesday night, aiming to get back on track and into the win column before returning home for a two-game homestand.
The Blues battled back from a 2-0 deficit with two goals in 2:30 late in the second period, tying things up on tallies from rookie Dalibor Dvorsky and captain Robert Thomas before Pius Suter buried a rebound for the last-gasp winner with 1:23 remaining in regulation at Enterprise Center on Monday evening.
Jack Roslovic’s third goal of the season on the power play and Andrew Mangiapane’s fourth tally of the campaign came on each side of the first intermission, with both goals being set up by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid. But they proved to be not enough, as the Blues found some life after their first goal and were able to wrestle the victory away late in an evenly-matched third period to end their seven-game skid (0-5-2).
“I thought we had a good start,” Mattias Ekholm said. “I thought we had a good half somewhere in there. When they got their first one, we got on our heels a little bit, then they got another one.
“But still, coming back from that second period, knowing to win a game to win on the road that you just win a period, I thought we had our looks. I think we can do a better job of imposing our will a little bit more in that third and maybe earning that win. We had some glimpses, but I think we can do more.”
Roslovic & Mangiapane score for the Oilers in Monday’s defeat
For the third straight game, the Oilers couldn’t defend their third-period lead, and it was the third time this season they fell to defeat after holding onto a two-goal advantage (vs. Calgary on Oct. 8, vs. New York on Oct. 30, vs. St. Louis on Nov. 2). Seven of their last eight games have been decided by one goal, and despite it still being early in the season, there are lessons to be learned about maintaining focus in closing out games in the balance.
“There are things that we like in our game, but there are things that we need to work on,” Ekholm said. “It’s early in the year, so I don’t think any team is perfect at this time of the year, but I think we can obviously do a better job in these close games.”
“Getting points all the time matters a lot, so I think that there’s room for improvement.”
McDavid’s primary assist on Roslovic’s opening goal was his 1,100th career point in his 726th career game (364G, 737A), making the Oilers captain the 69th player to reach the milestone and the fourth-fastest in League history behind Wayne Gretzky (464 games), Mario Lemieux (550) and Mike Bossy (725).
The 28-year-old has assisted on each of Edmonton’s last five goals over their previous two games and has recorded a point in each of his last 11 games against the Stars (regular season and playoffs), who are 6-3-3 this season under the leadership of former Oilers assistant coach Glen Gulutzan.
“It’s going to be a fun game,” Gulutzan said on Monday. “You spend seven years in a place, you’ve got good connections with people. I’m a people person, so you’ve got good friends there, and you always want to beat your friends.”
Mattias talks following Monday’s 3-2 defeat to the Blues
The Stars will be looking to avenge their back-to-back losses to the Oilers in the Western Conference Final and give Gulutzan a win over his old team, with whom he spent seven seasons as an assistant coach from 2017-25 and made two trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
“The last two years coming up short in the Western Conference Finals, it just reminds us that we need to come in and play hard if we want to beat these guys,” defenceman Alex Petrovic said.
“It’s going to be a big night. We’re definitely going to battle hard for him.”
The Stars are expected to be without netminder Jake Oettinger, who celebrated the birth of his family’s first child on Sunday, with Gulutzan saying he doesn’t expect him to be available to start against the Oilers. The Stars’ bench boss has been tasked with patching up an injury-riddled team that could be without Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz and Jamie Benn, who they haven’t had in their lineup for several weeks.
The Oilers will have defenceman Alec Regula available for the first time in three weeks after he was activated off IR on Tuesday morning following his recovery from an upper-body injury sustained on a hit from Evander Kane in a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 11.
Stuart Skinner will get the start in goal tonight.
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