In the battle between WCS and WTI, the Canadian crude came out on top. Dallas pushed hard in Game 5 but the bounces didn’t go there way. Edmonton persevered and ousted the Stars in dominant fashion. Dallas has lost the Western Conference finals three years in a row, and the Edmonton Oilers are back to the Stanley Cup finals – here’s how it happened.

Mavrik Borque took an early high stick on Evan Bouchard to give Edmonton an early powerplay opportunity. Draisaitl sent a bounce pass behind the boards to McDavid at the bottom of the left faceoff circle, and McDavid made a quick pass to Corey Perry; wasting no time, the ageless wonder popped the puck over Jake Oettinger for the first goal of Game 5.

Soon after Jake Walman sent a stretch pass to Viktor Arvidsson on the Dallas blue line, Arvidsson passed to Mattias Janmark who came barreling towards the Dallas netminder and fired the puck between the legs for a quick second goal.

Peter Deboer called an early time out after the goal and pulled Oettinger for the night. Casey DeSmith came in to alleviate the Dallas netminder of his duties – but Edmonton wasn’t deterred. A scramble developed in front of the Stars net and DeSmith deflected a rebound, but Jeff Skinner was there to wrist the puck through traffic for the first playoff goal of his career.

Stuart Skinner’s shutout bid was cut early after McDavid created a bad turnover in the Edmonton end – his pass bounced off Wyatt Johnston’s stick and straight onto Jason Roberston’s tape – who wristed the puck past Stuart Skinner to make the score 3-1.

Dallas was sent to the penalty kill after taking a second high sticking call, but they fought the penalty off with ferocity – generating more shots than Edmonton and forcing Stuart Skinner to make a splaying short-handed save to prevent further bleeding.

Dallas was playing with maximum desperation.

Firing on all cylinders the Stars forced Edmonton onto their heels. Edmonton held on for dear life through a 90 second defensive panic, only for Ekholm to take a soft penalty. The Oilers weren’t able to kill it off; after a give-and-go sequence Roope Hintz scored top shelf directly from the slot to make it a one goal game.

The ice was tilted and the Stars continued their relentless assault, but a blocked a shot deflected to Connor McDavid for a breakaway opportunity late in the second period. McDavid sprinted towards DeSmith with Roope Hintz in hot pursuit and crashed the puck into the net to suck the air out of the building and restore Edmonton’s two goal lead.

Dallas wouldn’t be held off for long – 45 seconds into the final frame Jason Robertson ripped the puck through Stuart Skinner’s legs. It wasn’t the strongest goal ever, Skinner probably wanted it back, but in Skinner’s defence – Dallas would probably be leading if it weren’t for his play in the second.

Evander Kane got a lucky bounce after driving past the net – he sent a centering pass forward that bounced off Esa Lindell’s skate and over Casey DeSmith for a back breacker goal number five that sealed Dallas’ fate. Kasperi Kapanen scored an empty netter with 11 seconds to go for a final score of 6-3.

The Edmonton Oilers are now the Western Conference Final champions for the second year in a row, and their reward is a Stanley Cup rematch with none other than the red hot Florida Panthers. This final series will be Oilers’ toughest challenge of the playoffs – and the stakes couldn’t be any higher. Connor McDavid and the Oilers crew have a chance at redemption after coming one goal short of a reverse sweep in 2024. This year is the deepest the Oilers have ever looked in the McDavid era, and they’ll have to lay it on the line starting Wednesday.