Edmonton needed a statement game after an embarassing collapse Monday night, and they delivered in shutdown fashion.

Action started sparse to open Game 2, until Granlund cross checked Jeff Skinner through the numbers. Edmonton’s powerplay made short work to gain the first lead of the night – Bouchard fanned on a slapshot but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was in position to tip it past Jake Oettinger.

Connor Brown had a close encounter with the skate of Granlund mid way through the second period. Grandlund fell down and kicked his foot up to Brown’s nose – luckily Brown escaped with no more than a paper cut.

Edmonton narrowly avoided a couple high danger shot opportunities in the center frame. Skinner made a desperation save to keep the Oilers ahead long enough to settle down play. Bouchard gathered the puck and sent a stretch pass up to McDavid who sent it backwards to Brett Kulak who sent a shot on net; the shot was blocked, and Kulak collected his own rebound before firing a second shot past Oettinger in the high corner.

The Oilers didn’t lay off the gas. The Kane-Nuge-Brown line hemmed Dallas back in their zone, and Nugent-Hopkins knuckled a shot towards Brown for a redirect goal to make the game 3-0 Edmonton.

Dallas killed off two penalties to start the third period, and then had their own look at the powerplay after Darnell Nurse slashed Roope Hintz hard in the shin – causing him to limp off the ice and exit the game. The penalty was reviewed for a major, but was called a 2 minute minor, very much to the chagrin of the fans. Edmonton killed off the penalty and pressure was mounting for Dallas to get back into Game 2.

Esa Lindell had a wide open net to give Dallas their first goal of the night, but he was absolutely robbed by a lunging paddle save from Stuart Skinner. It was Skinner’s best save of the night, and probably his best save of the entire playoffs so far. The Oilers locked down their defensive play afterwards, and the deflated Stars were held off for a final score of 3-0.

Stuart Skinner now has three shutouts in the 2025 playoffs, and Edmonton showed that they are capable of battling for a full sixty minutes against top competitors- if that was still in doubt.

Splitting the series puts Edmonton in a great position to take control of the Western Conference finals when they meet again with the Stars back in Alberta this Sunday afternoon.

It’s not a series until the road team wins a game; Well, we have a series now.