EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Jason Robertson completed his first career playoff hat trick midway through the third period as the Dallas Stars beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the NHL’s Western Conference final.
Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen scored into an empty net to score another goal for Dallas. Jake Oettinger made 26 saves. Rupe Hintz, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn each assisted on two goals.
“You want to help the team win, you want to score goals,” said Robertson, who hadn’t scored since Game 6 of the first round. “Scoring a goal gives you confidence … like a domino effect.”
Connor McDavid reached 100 career playoff points with a goal and an assist, Jack Hyman and Adam Henrique scored for Edmonton, while Stuart Skinner had 17 stops.
“It was a really good start,” McDavid said. “I don’t know where those 10, 15 minutes came from, but that was as bad as it’s been the whole playoffs.”
Dallas, which reestablished home ice advantage with the win and owned the league’s best regular-season road record, is now 6-1 in the playoffs away from American Airlines Center.
The Stars saw the return of Hintz, who had not dressed since suffering an upper-body injury in Game 4 of the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.
“We played at full strength when (Hintz) was out of the lineup,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It wasn’t good, it wasn’t as good as it was tonight when he was out, but we still found ways. Guys found ways to contribute even without a key player.
“That’s what I’m most proud of. It was great that he came back tonight, but I’m also proud of how we handled his absence.”
Game four of the best-of-seven series will take place Wednesday night.
Henrique returned to the lineup after sitting out seven of Edmonton’s past eight games with an ankle injury. Hintz, the Stars’ No. 1 center, is also back after a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
“You never know what a player is going to bring after not playing for a long period of time,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after Monday’s loss. “Usually it’s very difficult for a player to find his game, but I don’t think he had any problems.
“He made a lot of good plays, obviously with the goals. I thought he was really good in the faceoffs, and it was good to have him.”
The Oilers dominated the opening 20 minutes and the Stars regained momentum in the second period before Robertson broke a 3-3 tie via a jam play through Skinner at 11:54 of the third quarter.
Edmonton called the goaltender for overtime, but Heiskanen put the ball into the empty net with 1:55 remaining.
The Oilers put up a strong performance in the first over at Rogers Place.
McDavid hit a shot out of the corner that went past Hyman at 2:02 of the game after he was battling for forward position with Stars defenseman Ryan Suter for his 13th NHL goal in the playoffs.
The Oilers went ahead 2-0 at 7:37 when blueliner Mattias Ekholm circled the Stars net and lofted a pass to McDavid, who won a battle for the puck with Seguin in the crease for the superstar captain’s fourth goal of the series and second goal of the series after his double-overtime goal in Game 1.
After the interval, the Stars made a comeback in impressive fashion.
Robertson scored his fourth goal on a one-timer past Skinner’s ear at 5:35 of the second half and then fired another over the Edmonton goalkeeper at 8:05 as Dallas advanced in waves against a scattered, flat home team.
Johnson then made it 3-2 just 63 seconds later with his eighth goal in front of a stunned crowd.
The three goals in 3:33 minutes were the fastest trio in Dallas’ postseason history since moving to Texas in 1993.
