Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 41: Oilers secure rematch with Panthers with Game 5 win

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

There was once again quite a few lineup changes for both teams heading into Game 5. For the Edmonton Oilers, the changes were mostly due to injuries, as Jeff Skinner was in the lineup to replace Zach Hyman, who is out for the rest of the postseason, while Mattias Ekholm has finally returned to the lineup from his lengthy injury in place of Troy Stecher. Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars swapped out Oskar Back for Mavrik Bourque in an attempt to string some more offense together.

Once again, the Oilers got off to an excellent start. Corey Perry scored on an early power play opportunity, and then barely seven minutes into the game, Mattias Janmark had made it a 2-0 game. As a last ditch effort to turn this series around, Stars head coach Peter DeBoer called a timeout to calm down his team. Many thought that was all the timeout was for, and as Jake Oettinger skated back to the crease, he was surprised to be called back to the bench, because he was being pulled for Casey DeSmith.

However, that decision aged poorly very quickly, as Jeff Skinner scored 58 seconds later to make it 3-0. Lost in the chaos of the moment, the goal was actually Skinner’s first career playoff goal, coming in just his second career playoff game.

The Stars did start to answer back, as Jason Robertson scored four minutes after the 3-0 goal, and then midway through the second period, Roope Hintz made it a one-goal game. But just as the Stars began to build some momentum, Connor McDavid scored a high-speed breakaway goal a couple minutes later to make it 4-2.

And it really felt like the game was over after that goal. Yes, Robertson scored again 38 seconds into the third period to make it a one-goal game again, but Evander Kane responded a few minutes later with a fluky goal, and then once again, the Stars struggled to generate any scoring opportunities down the stretch. Kasperi Kapanen capped off the game with an empty net goal, and that would be it for the Stars’ season, as the Oilers took the game by a 6-3 score.

The Oilers now advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season, where they will once again face off against the Florida Panthers. As for the Stars, they’re bounced in the Western Conference Final for the third straight season, and may be in for an interesting offseason in the wake of cap constraints and the looming controversy of DeBoer’s goaltending change.