Turns out playing forty minutes of hockey isn’t good enough this time of year. Edmonton played the better game for the better part of two periods, but let it slip away due to one too many bad penalties.

Stuart Skinner and Jake Oettinger both started Wednesday night strong, defending five shots each early as Edmonton and Dallas traded a couple quality chances. The Oilers drew the first penalty of the series off a hooking call while Kulak was defending in the slot.

Edmonton killed off the penalty with ease, and managed to register the only two shots on net while shorthanded. Stuart Skinner made a huge save as the Oilers returned to full strength, and Edmonton capitalized on the momentum.

Leon Draisaitl narrowly kept the puck onside and gained entry back into Dallas’ end. McDavid drove the play deeper and managed to pass the puck to Darnell Nurse before losing control of the puck. Nurse passed back to Draisaitl who skated past Wyatt Johnston and wristed the puck top blocker side to score the first goal of the series.

Shortly after, Hyman almost had an opportunity to extend the lead, but his shot was an inch too high and Dallas got bailed out by the crossbar.

Dallas returned fire after taking an icing penalty. Edmonton won the draw, but Leon Draisaitl lost control of the puck near the blue line and Tyler Seguin was there for a quick exit and a clear cut breakaway to the other end where he rocketed a low shot past Stuart Skinner’s glove for the early equalizer.

A quarter into the second period Mason Marchment took a tripping penalty against the Oilers. Edmonton lost the opening draw and circled back. Draisaitl held the puck at the blue line and returned the puck to McDavid as he barreled into the zone. McDavid made a pass to Corey Perry that was deflected by Dallas, but ended up square on the tape of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nuge was wide open, and wristed a shot low gloveside for Edmonton’s second lead of the night.

With that powerplay goal, Edmonton broke their 14 powerplay scoreless streak when on the road.

The Oilers weren’t finished. Podkolzin drove behind the net, held off from a shot, but managed to maintain possession and sent the puck backwards. Evan Bouchard faked a slapshot and waited patiently before firing a bomb high gloveside to extend the lead to two.

Dallas narrowly avoided a three goal defecit barely 30 seconds later after Darnell rung the crossbar for the second time of the night.

Frustration began to build for the Stars; Thomas Harley cross checked Mattias Janmark on the opposite side of play and drew an interference penalty, but Dallas managed to hold off Edmonton’s powerplay unit.

Kulak took another hooking penalty, and this time it would cost him. Dallas scored on the tail end of the powerplay courtesy of Miro Heiskanen. The Stars clogged Skinner’s sightlines with heavy traffic and threw a wrist shot to make the score 3-2.

Almost immediately after Corey Perry sent Dallas back to the powerplay after taking a high sticking call. Dallas wasted no time tying the game; The Oilers penalty kill allowed Dallas to gain entry, cycle the puck with open space, and take a clear shot to make the score 3-3.

The Stars were gifted their third powerplay in a row after the Stars blatantly embellished a high stick. The brutal call was followed by an even more brutal penalty kill that quickly collapsed and allowed Dallas to take the lead with their fourth goal of the night.

And the wheels fell off from there. Dallas scored two more goals to make the game 6-3.

The Oilers were the better 5-on-5 team, but completely threw this game away by taking unnecessary penalties. The momentum that Dallas got in the third crashed down like a tidal wave and turned a should-be road win into a hometown stomp for the Stars.

Edmonton needs to bounce back with a vengeance on Friday. Collapsing in Game 1 isn’t back breaking, but it certainly isn’t the way you want to start a series.