DALLAS (AP) — There have been wild swings of momentum in the Western Conference Final, and something that has happened only one other time this late in the NHL playoffs.
After Edmonton and Dallas both came back from multiple-goal deficits to win while splitting the past two games, this is now a best-of-three for a spot in the Stanley Cup Final.
“You look back at this series … there’s four games that Dallas thought they could have won, and we feel there’s four games that we could have won,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It’s been a good series. I like where we’re going. I like stretches of how we’ve been playing, and it’s just important that we are able to do it for longer stretches.”
Game 5 is Friday night in Dallas.
With a chance to put a stranglehold on the series, Dallas scored twice in the first 5 1/2 minutes on the road in Game 4. Edmonton got even before the first period ended Wednesday night, then scored two more goals 51 seconds apart in the second period on way to a 5-2 win.
“This isn’t supposed to be easy, and it’s not supposed to be pretty,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said.
Well, that scenario looked a lot better for the Stars after winning Game 3. Rogers Place was in a frenzy with Edmonton back home and ahead 2-0 in only 7 1/2 minutes, but Dallas scored three goals in a 3:33 span of the second period and went on to win after its fastest trio of goals in a playoff game.
“They’re going to grab momentum at times in this series. It’s about what we do to go grab it back,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said after assisting on the tiebreaking short-handed goal in Game 4, less than a minute before Leon Draisaitl scored. “We had guys jumping over the boards trying to get the momentum back. Not trying to make a flashy play or anything, just simple, hard, win your battles.”
The only other time in the round before the Stanley Cup Final there were back-to-back games with the winner overcoming multiple-goal deficits was in 1992. That Campbell Conference final also involved Edmonton, which led 2-0 in the first period of Games 2 and 3 before Chicago won both those games on way to a four-game series sweep.
Edmonton led 2-0 in the opener of this series, but needed captain Connor McDavid’s goal 32 seconds into the second overtime to win 3-2. Dallas then went ahead early in Game 2, but captain Jamie Benn‘s goal hadn’t even been announced to the home crowd before Brown tied the game 44 seconds later — though the Stars won…