Dallas Stars’ unbelievable 3rd period snaps ugly streak against Edmonton Oilers
Game 1 of the NHL’s 2025 Western Conference Finals looked too much like Games 4, 5 and 6 of the 2024 Western Conference Finals.
The Edmonton Oilers’ best forwards played like the best forwards in the game, and the Dallas Stars could not convert enough on the few chances they did generate.
Maybe this was God telling the Stars, “This is what you get when you force Katy Perry to change dates.”
Then came a third period that sent all of greater Edmonton back to the bar. Actually, that’s not true. It’s Edmonton. They never left the bar.
In a six-minute sequence to start the third period that changed the game, the Stars scored three power play goals to flip a two goal deficit to a 4-3 lead. Don’t see that very often in any hockey game, much less a Stanley Cup playoff game, where officials don’t swallow whistles because they threw them away.
And you never see it in a Stars-Oilers playoff game.
The Stars added two more goals late, including one on an empty net, in the third period to win, 6-3. Game 2 is Friday night at the American Airlines Center.
It was only Game 1, but this was a Game 1 the Stars needed for the sake of their own confidence. And maybe their sanity.
Go back to the 2024 Western Conference finals, and the Oilers had won three straight games against the Stars in the playoffs. The final three games of that series left an orange and blue mark all over this Stars team. The type of mark that doesn’t come out with a Brillo pad, or a Bleach Big Gulp.
The older guys on this team realize what they are playing with, and the opportunity that sits there when you reach a Western Conference finals. They all thought they were better than the Oilers last season, but had their butts handed to them by Oilers forward Connor McDavid.
“It’s pretty cool to be here three years in a row,” Stars center Tyler Seguin said after the game of playing in three straight Western Conference finals. “But you don’t get to be here four and five years in a row. You can’t respond ‘the next game.’ You have to respond now.”
That’s spoken like a man who has played in the NHL for more than a decade, and knows how hard these sorts of opportunities are to enjoy one time, forget three times in three years.
The Oilers came out and out-played the Stars in each of the first two periods and led, 3-1.
“No one was happy with the first two periods the way we played,” Stars center Mikael Granlund said.
The Stars started the third period on a power play, which was an opportunity.
“We had that power play for a minute,” Stars center Matt Duchene said, implying there was weight and expectation on that type of chance.
Didn’t mean they would take advantage of it. They had been on the power play already once, and that did zero.
“We couldn’t get anything going,” Duchene said.
Thirty two seconds into the third period, and defenseman Miro Heiskanen’s goal changed the night. In a span of five minutes and 26 seconds, they scored three goals, all with the man advantage.
“At that point, we’re, ‘OK. We’re back in this and away we go,” Duchene said.
The irony is the Stars won this game thanks to a power play that was awful in this series against Edmonton last year. Including Game 1, the Stars had not scored in 15 consecutive playoff power plays against Edmonton.
“You never know when that switch is gonna go,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said.
That would be the third period on Wednesday night. Stars went 3-for-3 on third period power plays.
Some teams don’t score three power play goals in a series, forget one game, much less a period. Some teams don’t get three power play chances in a playoff game.
“We did it in Vegas when I was there,” DeBoer said when he coached the Vegas Golden Knights. “Doesn’t happen very often but I have seen it before.”
As much of a surprise as this third period is, how it all evolved, and ended, is consistent with the Stars this postseason. Four times they have entered the third period of a playoff game trailing and won.
What they did in Game 1 smells of a team on a special playoff run, and may have put how their 2024 season ended behind them.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 11:24 PM.
