Numbers to know
Stars: Harley (23 years, 271 days) became the third-youngest defenseman in NHL history to score a series-clinching goal in overtime, following Babe Pratt (21 years, 77 days) and Bobby Orr (22 years, 51 days). It was also the third-fastest, series-clinching overtime goal by a defenseman in NHL history (1:33), behind Chris Tanev, who scored 11 seconds into Game 4 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers, and Orr, who scored 40 seconds into Game 4 overtime to win the Stanley Cup for the Bruins in 1970.
Oilers: McDavid has 17 career points (six goals, 11 assists) in the conference final, which ranks seventh in Oilers history behind Wayne Gretzky (55), Mark Messier (55), Glenn Anderson (48), Jari Kurri (46), Paul Coffey (27) and Craig Simpson (18). His six goals are tied with Hyman and Dave Hunter for sixth in franchise history. Kurri (28), Messier (23), Anderson (21), Gretzky (14) and Craig Simpson (11) have more.
They said it
“I think we’ve learned a lot the last two years. That’s all we wanted after we lost last year is this opportunity. The fact that we get to play Edmonton again makes it even better. I think we’ve all learned a lot. The young guys, like [Harley], Wyatt [Johnston], [Robertson], myself, the guys that hadn’t had any experience, we have all the experience in the world now. It’s up to us as a group to take that next step and I think we should feel great about what we’ve done with the adversity we’ve faced. I think our best hockey is yet to come.” — Stars goalie Jake Oettinger
“It was definitely a strong-fought battle by both teams. I think the way that they play is pretty similar. Obviously, they’re a little bit of a different team with different players, but they’re good at all ends of the ice, they know how to win games, they’ve been in the third round for how many years now, so they’re a team that’s hungry and it’s going to be a hard fight.” — Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner
Will win if…
Stars: Depth scoring must continue. The Stars have gotten goals from 12 different players in their first 13 games of the postseason. They’ll need more of that against the Oilers, who shut down the top scorers for the Golden Knights in the last round. Pavel Dorofeyev, Tomas Hertl, Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden were the top five goal-scorers for Vegas during the regular season; they combined for zero goals in the second-round series, and the Golden Knights did not score a goal in either of the final two games, including Game 5, which went into overtime.
Oilers: They get their power play firing. After being on fire in the first round, Edmonton’s power-play units lost the plot against Vegas, going 1-for-11 (9.1 percent) in the second round. Somehow, the Oilers survived and advanced. McDavid doesn’t have a power-play goal after 11 games, and Edmonton has yet to score a power-play goal in six road games this postseason. It’s unlikely the Oilers will win another round like that, especially considering Dallas was at 31.3 percent on the power play against the Winnipeg Jets in the second round and scored the series-winning goal with the man-advantage.
How they look
Dallas Stars projected lineup
Mikael Granlund — Roope Hintz — Mikko Rantanen
Jamie Benn — Matt Duchene — Tyler Seguin
Mason Marchment — Wyatt Johnston — Jason Robertson
Sam Steel — Evgenii Dadonov
Thomas Harley — Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell — Cody Ceci
Lian Bichsel — Alexander Petrovic
Ilya Lyubushkin
Jake Oettinger
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Mavrik Bourque, Colin Blackwell, Mathew Dumba, Brendan Smith
Injured: Nils Lundkvist (shoulder)
Oilers projected lineup
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Connor McDavid — Zach Hyman
Vasily Podkolzin — Leon Draisaitl — Kasperi Kapanen
Evander Kane — Adam Henrique — Connor Brown
Trent Frederic — Mattias Janmark — Corey Perry
Brett Kulak — Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse — Troy Stecher
Jake Walman – John Klingberg
Stuart Skinner
Olivier Rodrigue
Scratched: Viktor Arvidsson, Joshua Brown, Cam Dineen, Ty Emberson, Max Jones, Derek Ryan, Jeff Skinner
Injured: Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed), Calvin Pickard (lower body)
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