GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Stars 4

EDMONTON, AB – Zach Hyman had two goals and an assist, while Connor McDavid contributed a goal and an assist for the Edmonton Oilers, who held off a third-period push from the Dallas Stars on Saturday night to pick up two points in a 5-4 victory at Rogers Place.

"I think there's a long way to go, but I wouldn't count out our group out with the experience we have here," Hyman said. "I think we're pretty confident in this group and we have a little stretch here to get to playing our best so that we're feeling good going into the playoffs."

Hyman recorded his 21st and 22nd goals of the season and picked up a helper on McDavid's second-period tally as part of five unanswered goals from the Blue & Orange over the first two periods to build themselves a 5-1 lead after falling behind on Wyatt Johnston's early power-play goal.

Newcomer Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist for Dallas, scoring his 28th tally of the campaign 5:06 into the third period on the power play to kick off a three-goal stretch in 4:12 from the Stars that included Jamie Benn making it a two-goal game only 11 seconds later.

Defenceman Mathew Dumba's slap shot got a lucky bounce off Ty Emberson's skate to make it 5-4, but the Oilers were able to hold on to defeat the Stars to conclude their three-game homestand at Rogers Place with two wins out of three, improving to 37-22-4 this season to sit four points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.

Edmonton's newest addition in defenceman Jake Walman recorded an assist in his Oilers debut, while wingers Connor Brown and Viktor Arvidsson ended their own respective goal droughts in the victory with their eighth goals of the season. Goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 22 of 26 shots for the victory.

"I think there'll be battles down the road with these guys at some point, and I think that was probably the perfect game for me to start off and get the feeling of what it's like," Walman said.

The Oilers now hit the road for a four games that begin Monday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo before they face the Devils, Islanders and Rangers.

FIRST PERIOD

Looks like each team's new No. 96 is going to be just fine in their new colours, but we like the look of the one in Blue & Orange.

As a whole, the Oilers played one of their best periods of the season despite falling behind 1-0 to the Stars at 14:12 of the opening frame when shorthanded after Leon Draisaitl was penalized for slashing his former teammate Cody Ceci in the hands.

Superstar Mikko Rantanen, fresh off Friday's blockbuster trade to Dallas Stars from the Carolina Hurricanes and signing an eight-year, $12 million AAV contract, threw a low shot on goal from the right circle that was kicked out by goaltender Stuart Skinner, but forward Wyatt Johnston – who also signed a new five-year, $8.4 million AAV contract on Saturday – pounced the rebound to give the 21-year-old his 24th goal of the campaign.

With all the superstars on the ice in what could be a preview of another Western Conference Final this season, Oilers captain Connor McDavid wasn't going to be overshadowed after orchestrating a terrific dangle to set up Zach Hyman to power home his first of two goals in the first period.

McDavid came through the slot with the puck and went around forward Mikael Granlund with a nice toe drag, pulling goaltender Jake Oettinger out of position in the process before tucking the puck back into the blue paint for 'Shaq Hyman' to attack the rim and push the puck over the goal line.

"I think we've been building the last couple of games," Hyman said. "Obviously haven't been able to put it in, but I think today, we were finally able to capitalize on some looks and everything looks better when you're scoring."

Not to be overshadowed either by the other new No. 96 on the other side, newly-acquired Oilers defenceman Jake Walman – the first player in franchise history to wear the number – made an amazing first impression with the perfect pass to Hyman to spring him on a breakaway.

"Just trying to get my feet under me, especially in that first," Walman said. "After that, I kind of settled in and it was pretty easy to play with those guys."

Walman showed his first-pass ability with a 100-foot feed to Hyman from inside the right circle in the Oilers zone, picking out the streaking winger through the neutral zone for him to bat down the puck from a foot off the ice before sneaking a backhand under the right arm of Oettinger and over the goal line.

"It was a great handle by him. It was a hard puck to hit down," Walman added. "I was just trying to kind of put it in an area for him and I saw he had a step, but yeah, he made a great play. I'm not sure what it hit, but he controlled it pretty well and buried it."

Walman joined forwards Max Jones, Matthew Savoie and Noah Philp this season as Oilers who recorded a point during their first game with the club, while the primary helper on Hyman's 22nd of the campaign moved him up to six goals and 27 assists 51 games this campaign with San Jose and Edmonton.

"I think we'll see a lot of plays like he did tonight," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "And that's why our management thought very highly of him to trade for him, which I think is really going to pay off for us."

With his 21st and 22nd goals of the season, Hyman posted his first regular-season goal and point against the Stars since Dec. 21, 2022, along with getting his first career multi-goal game and regular season multi-point game against the Central Division side.

Almost five-and-a-half minutes later, there was still time on the clock in the first period for winger Viktor Arvidsson to make it 3-1 for the Oilers by putting an end to his eight-game goalless drought with an unbeatable one-timer from the top of the right circle.

Arvidsson put Evan Bouchard's cross-ice pass onto a tee and ripped a one-timer from one knee off the far post and into the back of the Dallas net beyond Oettinger for his eighth goal of the camapign, with Bouchard and Draisaitl picking up the helpers to help make it a multi-goal lead for Edmonton heading into the first intermission.

Draisaitl stretched his point streak to 14 games with the secondary helper, tying his career-highs from the '24-25 and '18-19 seasons and his German counterpart in Ottawa's Tim Stützle for the longest active streak currently in the NHL.

"[The pace] was probably the biggest thing I noticed," Walman said. "Just the compete level and these guys are always on. It feels like a different level and I'm just really excited to play at that level. And like I said before, meaningful games. I think that was kind of almost like a pre-playoff game."

SECOND PERIOD

Connor McDavid, that was simply ridiculous.

There isn't a single defenceman in the NHL who wants to be put into the position of defending a one-on-one against the world's greatest player with speed, and Ilya Lyubushkin was the unfortunate soul who had the displeasure of being on the wrong end of a McDavid highlight-reel goal 5:20 into the middle frame.

McDavid had runway to work with coming out of Edmonton's zone as he attacked a stranded Lyubushkin, creating a nightmare scenario for the Russian blueliner by putting it through his feet before rounding him with ease for a breakaway. Alone in the Stars crease, Oettinger could barely flinch and attempt to make a pokecheck before he flipped his back-hand effort over the left shoulder of the Dallas netminder for another one of those magic McDavid goals.

"I looked up at the scoreboard, watched the replay a couple of times and just smiled to myself," Walman said. "It's amazing."

The 4-1 tally from McDavid marked his ninth-consecutive 80-point season after he picked up a goal and an assist in the first two periods on Saturday – both at even strength – to sit tied for fourth all-time on the NHL's list for the most consecutive 80-point campaigns (Dale Hawerchuk - 13, Wayne Gretzky - 13, Phil Esposito - 11, four others - 9).

At this point, the Oilers were pushing the Stars around in every way, with Rantanen getting bullied by two of Edmonton's fresh arrivals in Max Jones and Jake Walman after finding himself on the receiving end of a pair of hard hits that sent him tumbling to the ice.

Jones, who arrived in a pre-Trade Deadline deal from the Boston Bruins with Trent Frederic on Tuesday, delivered a clean and powerful check on the Finnish superstar below the goal line in the Dallas zone before Walman caught him with his head down in the neutral zone later in the period to guarantee he'd be keeping his head up for the rest of the game.

"I like to be physical anytime somebody's coming through the middle, but I think I let off a little bit," Walman said. "It's a tough play being caught in that position. You don't want to see anybody get hurt, so it is what it is."

Playing physical is one of the many dimensions that Walman brings to the Oilers, and almost every one of his skills were utilized on Saturday. As for Jones, his game has come as advertized with the winger totalling eight hits and an assist over his two performances in an Oilers uniform.

"I think he'll chip in [physically]. I don't think he's going to run out of his way," Knoblauch said of Walman. "I think he's a strong guy and solid on his skates, but I don't think he's gonna be running around. I certainly don't want him to do that. But he can chip in with the physicality, and just with our team, I think everybody can.

"Speaking of physicality with Jones, two games and he's really provided an element that we've been missing. Tonight he played about eight minutes, five hits, and very similar to the night before. So adding a little bit of speed and physicality, which is good for our team."

Edmonton continued to own Dallas and were even getting the bounces, turning a fourtunate redirection off defenceman Thomas Harley on an odd-man rush with 2:40 remaining in the period into a 5-1 lead through winger Connor Brown's first goal in 10 games.

The goal went down as unassisted when Brown's attempted saucer pass to Mattias Janmark struck Harley's leg before landing back on his stick for an easy finish beyond Oettinger, who was expecting the pass to get through to the Swede on the other side.

For how positive the Oilers were feeling entering the third period, they needed to be careful not to take their foot off the gas pedal with a 5-1 advantage.

THIRD PERIOD

No time for Star-gazing now.

The Oilers were caught watching the shooting Stars in the first half of the third period when Dallas scored twice in 11 seconds through Mikko Rantanen and Jamie Benn to make it 5-3 before Mathew Dumba's lucky bounce off the skate of Ty Emberson pulled them within a goal just over four minutes later.

It was looking like one of those faultless Oilers performances early in the frame when Stuart Skinner got in on the action with a monstrous glove save on Rantanen, reaching across to take away what looked like a sure-fire debut goal for the Finn on a rebound that came to the right of Edmonton's crease.

After that is when the Stars began to make things interesting, with Rantanen eventually getting his revenge on the power play before Jamie Benn scored on a nice back-hand effort just 11 seconds later to draw his side within two with three quarters of the final period still to play.

Dallas made it a one-goal game 4:01 later on Mathew Dumba's quick release of a bouncing puck that was saved initially by Skinner, but the rebound found the leg of Emberson before finding its way across the goal line to make for a nervy final 10:42 of regulation.

Though the result looked in the balance during the final frame, the Oilers found their resolve to see out the victory – including over a minute of six-on-five for the Stars where the hosts were pinned into their own zone and defending for the two points.

The Oilers on the ice in the final minute included Walman, who gained the trust of his coaching staff immediately to get the opportunity to see out the victory.

"Yeah, it means a lot," he said. "I think any competitor wants to be in that position, and those are big minutes and I'm up for the challenge and. Wherever they put me, I'm trying to compete as hard as I can."

It wasn't always pretty, but the Oilers secured two hard-fought points to improve to 37-22-4 this season and conclude their three-game homestand at Rogers Place this week with two wins out of three.

"Two power-play goals and one goes off your guys' shin pad and in. Tough bounces," Hyman said. "I thought Stu played phenomenal, but we just grinded the win."

Despite the Dallas comeback, Coach Knoblauch still liked what he saw from his group, saying that a few of their goals came off lucky bounces and the first two periods were some of his team's best hockey of the season.

"The first two periods I thought we did a lot of good things. We were faster and more direct," he said. "I thought our forecheck hunting pucks was much, much better. I think also I think the score was a little bit skewed. I think things were going our way. We were getting the bounces, and then in the third period, the bounces were going their way. But there were a lot of things I liked."

The Oilers now hit the road for four games out East in the states of New York and New Jersey, starting on Monday night against the Buffalo Sabres.