DALLAS — Mason Marchment scored for the first time since the playoff opener and the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Saturday night to even the Western Conference Final at a game each.
Marchment broke a tie at 3:41 of the third period when he deflected shot that went through the legs of defenseman Vincent Deshamais, then bounced on the ice and went between the right arm and body of goalie Stuart Skinner. Stars defenseman Ryan Suter, whose 1,444 career regular-season games without a Stanley Cup title are the most among active players, shot the puck from against the board just inside the blue line that Marchment deflected.
“We’ve got to play like it’s Game 7. We’re so close, so it’s just got to be a Game 7 mentality for the rest of this ride here,” Marchment said.
Stars captain Jamie Benn had a goal and assisted on Esa Lindell‘s empty-netter with 2:03 left. Wyatt Johnston had two assists.
Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 28 shots, including a reaching glove save on Mattias Ekholm‘s shot with about 3 1/2 minutes left and also gathered in the Edmonton defenseman’s long shot about a half-minute after that.
Connor Brown had Edmonton’s goal. Skinner, who had won the previous three games since being sitting two games in the last round, stopped 22 shots.
Game 3 is Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won 4-3 in their only trip there this season. That was Nov. 2 during the Oilers’ 3-9-1 start that led to Jay Woodcroft getting fired as coach and replaced by Kris Knoblauch.
This was the seventh consecutive time the Stars went into Game 2 of a best-of-seven playoff series coming off a loss, including all three this postseason. Marchment had scored in their 4-3 loss to Vegas in the playoff opener April 22, left Game 2 with an undisclosed injury and then missed six games before returning in Game 2 of the second round against Colorado.
The Oilers had gone ahead in this series on Connor McDavid‘s goal 32 seconds into double overtime for a 3-2 win in Game 1 on Thursday.
Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl was scoreless, ending his playoff-opening points streak ended at 13 games. That was one short of matching Mark Messier’s franchise record set in 1988.
The teams traded goals 44 seconds apart early in the first period.
Benn scored on Dallas’ first shot on goal in the game, with a wrister from the top of the right circle that flew across the front of Skinner and in the lower left corner of the net 3:39 into the game.
Edmonton, which outshot the Stars 17-4 in the first period, got even when Brown scored on a rebound of Cody Ceci‘s shot after he had initially gotten the puck from Brown. It was Brown’s first goal this postseason, and the only other one he has came in 2018 for Toronto against Boston.
After going 0 for 5 on the power play in the series opener, including a double-minor penalty in the opening seconds of the first overtime that gave them four minutes with a man advantage, the Stars failed to score on their only power play in Game 2.
That extended Edmonton’s streak to 20 penalties killed over six-plus games, since giving up a power-play goal in Game 3 of its second-round series against Vancouver.