Connor McDavid had a breakaway goal and an assist, 40-year-old Corey Perry scored again and the Edmonton Oilers are going to their second Stanley Cup Final in a row after beating the Dallas Stars 6-3 on Thursday night in Game 5 to wrap up the Western Conference final.
“Some teams get really hot coming down the stretch and they ride it all the way through the playoffs; I think for us it’s kind of come together in the playoffs and we’ve been building and building and building our game, and I think we’re starting to see some of our best hockey — I thought tonight maybe not so much — but our best hockey is still in front of us, which is a great thing,” McDavid said after the win.
Edmonton scored on its first two shots, and jumped ahead 3-0 in the first 8:07 on way to eliminating the Stars in the West final for the second year in a row.
The Oilers now get another rematch, against defending Stanley Cup champion Florida after a seven-game series last June.
Mattias Janmark, Jeff Skinner, Evander Kane and Kasperi Kapanen also had goals for Edmonton, the last being an empty-netter in the closing seconds. Leon Draisaitl and Jake Walman each had two assists.
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Jason Robertson scored twice and Roope Hintz had a goal for the Stars, who ended their season in the West final for the third year in a row. Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley each had two assists.
Dallas was down 3-2 when Harley had a one-timer blocked by Mattias Ekholm, the Oilers defenseman playing for the first time this postseason. Oilers captain McDavid gathered the long ricochet well past center ice and beat goalie Casey DeSmith with 5:32 left in the second period.
DeSmith had taken over in net after starting goalie Jake Oettinger was pulled following Janmark’s goal that made it 2-0 only 7:09 into the game.
Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner had 14 saves. DeSmith, who hadn’t played since April 26 in Game 1 of the first round against Colorado, stopped 17 of 20 shots.
Perry scored on a power play, assisted by McDavid and Draisaitl, only 2:31 in the game. His seven goals are the most by any player age 39 or older in a single postseason, and the 2007 Stanley Cup champion with Anaheim when he was 22 is now going to his fifth Final in the past six seasons.
That was McDavid’s 100th assist in 90 playoff games, the second-fastest player in NHL history to reach that mark. Wayne Gretzky had 100 assists in his first 70 playoff games, and no other player has reached the mark in fewer than 125 games.
Robertson scored a minute into the third period to get the Stars within a goal again. Kane then scored on a shot that went off the skate of Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell and past DeSmith.
Jeff Skinner, the 33-year-old forward ho has played 1,078 regular-season games over 15 years with three teams, scored his first career postseason goal. His playoff debut was in the first-round opener against Los Angeles on April 21, but he didn’t play again until Thursday when the Oilers were without injured forwards Zach Hyman and Connor Brown.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is Wednesday night in Edmonton.
“A lot of credit to Florida, they might be even be better than they were last year — for a team to get there three years in-a-row, that’s not by accident,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said when asked about their next opponent.
“They beat a pretty good team in Carolina and I think we have a chance, but we’re going to have to be at our best to give ourselves that opportunity.”
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