Wyatt Johnston looks snap mini three-game goal drought and add to his seven playoff goals in a favourable matchup.
Saturday features an exciting Game two matchup between the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers, who found a way to steal Game one on the road. Much like the New York Rangers, the Stars will look to even things up on home ice.
We look to hopefully gain some momentum with our picks as we’ve gone 3-3 over our last six picks including a surprising loss to the Pad Stacking Challenge on Friday. We look to get both going in the right direction with a big Saturday.
All betting lines are from BetMGM and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
Bet: Stars ML (-135), Wyatt Johnston Over 0.5 points (-130), Logan Stankoven anytime goal (+380)
Across the board, Playoff games have slowly started to tighten up defensively and have seen an upswing in games falling to the Under in goals.
Four straight games, dating back to Edmonton’s Game seven win over the Canucks, have totalled under six goals and beg the question of when we will next see an offensive explosion.
We are getting to the point where just three goals is an impressive night offensively. This series may not see one for a while as there are two goaltenders that are making a difference for their team with Dallas’ Jake Oettinger and Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner.
Oettinger has a 1.88 goals against average and a .926 save percentage over his last five games while Skinner has a 1.50 goals against average and a .923 save percentage since getting the net back from Calvin Pickard in Game six of their series versus Vancouver.
One netminder is bound to lose their edge as they are both rolling right now and Skinner seems to be the more likely subject. Before his last three starts, he had a 3.22 goals against average and a .877 save percentage through eight playoff games that he’s improved upon but he will likely regress as he will have to deal with a desperate Stars team.
Dallas will certainly want to avoid the hardships they had to go through in their first round series versus the Golden Knights, when they lost both home games to start and had to win four of the next five games.
Skinner may still have a great game but Oettinger has been far more consistent with a 2.11 goals against average that ranks first of all remaining netminders. Dallas received their scoring in Game one from most of their veteran players with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin both finding the scoresheet.
The Stars have found much of their success so far this postseason due to their youngsters making an impact like Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven. Johnston finished the regular season as the teams top goal-scorer with 32 and followed it up with seven goals in his first 11 playoff games.
Since then, he has gone three straight games without scoring and teammate Stankoven has gone two games without a point after finishing the second round on a strong note. Both should make an impact as Johnston has three goals and two assists in seven career games versus Edmonton while Stankoven had only played them once prior to Game one where he ended up with an assist.
Johnston should certain find the scoresheet and Stankoven should as well but possibly wait to see if a point prop is later released for Stankoven as that would be the better play.