Jason Robertson powers Stars over Oilers 5-3 for lead in Western Conference final

Tue, May 28, 2024
NHL News (AP)

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Jason Robertson completed his first-career playoff hat trick midway through the third period as the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the NHL's Western Conference final.

Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen, into the empty net, had the other goal for Dallas. Jake Oettinger made 26 saves. Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn had two assists each.

Connor McDavid, with a goal and an assist to give him 100 career playoff points, Zach Hyman and Adam Henrique scored for Edmonton, which got 17 stops from Stuart Skinner.

Dallas, which reestablished home-ice advantage with the victory and owned the league's best regular-season road record, is now 6-1 in the playoffs away from American Airlines Center.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night.

Henrique returned to the lineup after sitting out seven of Edmonton's last eight games with a suspected ankle injury. Hintz, the Stars' No. 1 center, was also back following a four-game absence because of an upper-body injury.

After the Oilers dominated the opening 20 minutes and the Stars grabbed momentum back in the second period, Robertson snapped a 3-3 tie at 11:54 of the third on a jam play that squeezed through Skinner.

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Edmonton pulled the goaltender late looking to force overtime, but Heiskanen iced it into an empty net with 1:55 left in regulation.

The Oilers came out flying in the first inside a deafening Rogers Place.

McDavid wheeled out of the corner and fired a shot that went in off Hyman just 2:02 into the game as he battled with Stars defenseman Ryan Suter for position in front for his NHL-leading 13th goal of the playoffs.

The Oilers went ahead 2-0 at 7:37 when blueliner Mattias Ekholm circled the Stars net and fired a pass for McDavid, who won a battle with Seguin for the puck in the crease for the superstar captain's fourth - and second of the series after his double overtime goal in Game 1.

The Stars pushed back in impressive fashion coming out of the intermission.

Robertson blasted his fourth at 5:35 of the second on a one-timer past Skinner's ear before shoveling another upstairs on the Edmonton goaltender at 8:05 as Dallas came in waves against the disjointed, flat home side.

Johnston then made it 3-2 just 63 seconds later to completed the barrage with his eighth in front of a stunned crowd.

The three goals in 3:33 were the quickest trio in Dallas postseason history since moving to Texas in 1993.

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