Oilers withstand late Stars rally in Game 6, advance to Stanley Cup Final

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist for the Edmonton Oilers, who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006 with a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Sunday.

The Oilers, who are the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division, will start on the road against the Florida Panthers, who are the No. 1 seed from the Atlantic Division. The Panthers advanced to their second straight Cup Final with a 2-1 win against the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday.

“There’s been lots of growing pains, for sure, lots of lessons, and obviously it feels great to be in this position,” McDavid said. “This was always part of the plan, and it feels good to be here today.”

Zach Hyman also scored, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers, who went 2-for-2 on the power play. Stuart Skinner made 33 saves.

“I don’t have any words. This is remarkable. Amazing,” said Kris Knoblauch, who replaced Jay Woodcroft as Edmonton's coach on Nov. 12 following a 3-9-1 start. “I was, at the time, hoping to get my American League team into the playoffs, and we’ll see what happens from there.

“For me, to be going to the Stanley Cup Final with this organization? Awesome. It is awesome. But everyone said it. We want four more. But right now, this is pretty awesome.”

Mason Marchment scored, and Jake Oettinger made eight saves for the Stars, who were the No. 1 seed from the Central Division.

“Just gutting is the only word I can feel when you lose a game like that,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Proud of our group, proud of our fight, proud of our battle. We’re just gutted. They did leave it all out there. We should be playing for a Game 7. Have to give Edmonton credit for their power play, in particular over the last two games, was good. Their goaltending was good."

McDavid put Edmonton ahead 1-0 with an individual effort on the power play at 4:17 of the first period. He made a move around Sam Steel in the left circle, toe-dragged the puck around Miro Heiskanen with Steel on his back, and roofed a backhand over Oettinger's glove from in tight.

“Yeah, it was nice. I’ve seen it before, but it was nice,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “There’s one player in the world that can make plays like that and (make) things like that happen. I don’t know what to say. He knows what I think of him, I think everybody does. So, I’ll just leave it at that."

Hyman made it 2-0 with another power-play goal at 15:42. He took a pass from McDavid at the edge of the left circle and shot high blocker side on Oettinger for his League-leading 14th goal of the playoffs.

It was Edmonton’s second goal on three shots in the first. Dallas finished with 12 shots in the period.

“It’s fine lines when you get to this time of the year," DeBoer said. "I thought we had a little bit of an off night in Game 5 and they won (3-1 on Friday), and they had a bit of an off night tonight and they still found a way to win. That’s the difference. ... I don’t know what to say. Tough to swallow.”

Marchment cut it to 2-1 at 9:18 of the third period. His initial shot went wide of the net, but Tyler Seguin slid the rebound past Skinner, who got turned around at the left post, into the crease, where Marchment jammed it into the open net.

“There wasn’t a moment in this series until the buzzer just now where I thought we weren’t going to win or didn’t deserve to win or thought we could earn it and we didn’t,” Seguin said. “That’s what playoff hockey is.

“When you have those opportunities -- there’s a lot of emotion right now, a lot of disappointment, but heck yeah, had a ton of fun, too. We had a blast being in these big moments, guys grinding and the ups and downs. I love this [stuff], so that was awesome.”

Dallas outshot Edmonton 13-2 in the third period.

“We’ve closed out big games. It’s not always the prettiest, but we got it done and that’s all that really matters,” McDavid said. “I thought we gave up a couple looks coming down the stretch that we’d like to not give up, and guys were sacrificing their bodies with big blocks or 'Stu' making timely saves, whatever it was. We got it done and that’s all that really matters. We’ll move on from this one tonight.”

NOTES: Edmonton was 4-for-11 on the power play in the series. Dallas was 0-for-14 and allowed one short-handed goal. ... McDavid leads the NHL with 31 points (five goals, 26 assists) in 18 playoff games. He is the sixth player in League history to get at least 30 points in multiple postseasons (also 2021-22). The others are Wayne Gretzky (six), Mark Messier (three), Jari Kurri (two), Mario Lemieux (two) and Nikita Kucherov (two). ... Bouchard has 21 assists this postseason, which is tied with Cale Makar (2021-22) for the fourth-most by a defenseman in NHL history. Only Paul Coffey (25 in 1984-85), Al MacInnis (24 in 1988-89) and Brian Leetch (23 in 1993-94) have had more in a single postseason.