The Dallas Stars evened the series with the Edmonton Oilers 1-1 after a 3-1 victory in Game 2.
After two deadlocked periods where the Oilers looked like the stronger team, Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer switched up his lines and saw immediate results as Mason Marchment scored the game-winner in a hard fought 3-1 win for the Stars.
Marchment switched from the first to the fourth line, teaming up with Sam Steel and Ty Dellandrea, and on that line's first shift of the game together, Marchment deflected a shot from Ryan Suter past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner for the eventual game-winning goal. Usually, going from the top line down to the fourth line would be a huge demotion, but with the Stars depth, almost any forward is interchangeable on any line. That depth and flexibility has proven to be critical to the Stars success when trying to find their game after struggling for the first part of a tight contest.
Starting out with Matt Duchene and Joe Pavelski, Marchment had the task of playing head-to-head with Connor McDavid and the Oilers top line. It seemed to be a strange decision on paper, but that line was statistically one of the Stars best in Game 1 and was able to limit McDavid, along with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman, to a minimal impact Saturday.
But the Stars needed more offense, and DeBoer tweaked the lines and got exactly what he needed. Jason Robertson shifted to the top line next to Duchene and Pavelski, and Craig Smith took Robertson's place alongside Tyler Seguin and Evgenii Dadonov.
Jamie Benn opened the scoring early on in the first period with a long distance wrist shot that beat Skinner and sent the star-studded home crowd into a frenzy.
The joy was limited to only 44 seconds, though, as an unlikely source of goal scoring came from Connor Brown of the Oilers to tie the game 1-1. Brown had notably not scored for more than three-quarters of the season, and finished the regular season with just one goal. Brown took advantage of an Oettinger rebound and beat the reacting goalie through the legs just before Oettinger could squeeze the pads shut.
After a goal on either side that each goalie would have liked back, both Skinner and Oettinger locked it down and finished the next two periods by making clutch save after clutch save. Oettinger faced 16 shots in the first period and was the sole reason the Stars even had a chance to keep the game tied after trading the two early goals. Edmonton was quicker to pucks, and looked hungrier for the win early on. Dallas could only muster four shots of their own in the first, but bounced back to outshoot Edmonton 21-13 after the opening period.
The Stars have gotten used to playing one goal, tightly contested games all playoffs long, and with the second period finishing scoreless, it felt like yet another one of those games where the only two goal lead for either team would come if someone hit an empty net up by one. Sure enough, that was the case in the end, as Dallas clamped down after taking the 2-1 lead just under four minutes into the third period.
Dallas put on a masterclass of defending while Edmonton continued to roll McDavid and Leon Draisaitl out to create dangerous chances, but the defensemen of Dallas had a great game after a shaky first period and really outworked the Oilers forwards in the third.
A credit goes to Suter, who has rolled seamlessly into the rotation even as the fifth defenseman without a partner who plays nearly as much as the other five guys all postseason. Suter played exceptionally well tonight, winning one-on-one battles with the most dangerous players on Edmonton's roster. The role he's playing this season has put him in a perfect place to excel, compared to last year when he was exclusively paired with Miro Heiskanen and thrown into every top pairing role, asked to perhaps overextend himself at his current age and level of play. While the criticism of his play was more than fair at times last year, his turnaround in play this season deserves recognition.
Of course, Chris Tanev has deservedly gotten his fair share of praise for how he has matched up against each team's top forwards, but quietly Heiskanen has been putting together a defending masterclass over a long stretch now.
Continuing with the theme of defensemen excelling, Esa Lindell put the game away with a quick goal into the empty net after the Oilers somewhat mistimed when they pulled Skinner. Lindell has proven to have a knack for the bullseye when the opposing goalie has been pulled this postseason, and even a late Stars penalty didn't bear fruit for the Oilers, who ended the game losing 3-1, headed back to Alberta with a series split in Dallas.
The crowd was filled with screaming fans and a long list of celebrities, including Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and current flame of Taylor Swift) Travis Kelce. Other celebrity sightings included golfer Bryson DeChambeau and former Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels.
Cowboys quarterbacks Tony Romo and Troy Aikman have been spotted in the crowd earlier this playoffs, and cornerback Trevone Diggs took in his first hockey game in Game 1. Notably, he took a liking to Mason Marchment, and Marchment delivered with the game winner Saturday.
The Stars road success is well documented at this point, and Dallas has had relative success in Edmonton in the Benn and Seguin era, but have also seen exactly how lethal the Oilers top players can be when they are playing at home. Earlier this season, Dallas hung on to win despite allowing over 20 third period shots in a frenzied Oilers comeback attempt. The task at hand is to win at least one in the great white north, but after the sweep of road wins in Colorado, it isn't out of the picture to think Dallas could be greedy and go for both wins on the road and set up a potential close-out game next Friday back in Dallas.
Games 3 and 4 are at 7:30 p.m. CDT and can continue to be seen on TNT and truTV.
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