Dallas Stars 6, Edmonton Oilers 5

by PegNews wire

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What a wild night in Edmonton.

In what was a wild night in Edmonton that saw the Dallas Stars rally from a 4-1 deficit to take a 5-4 lead on a highlight reel goal by Niklas Hagman, then give up the game-tying goal with two seconds left in regulation after Patrik Stefan blew an empty net scoring chance with less than ten seconds to go, play a five-minute overtime in which there were no whistles and then win the shootout goals by Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen. The end result - a 6-5 win over the Oilers at Rexall Place.

"One for the ages," Stars goalie Marty Turco called it.

"It's just one of those things in the game of hockey that you'll remember forever," said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish.

For the Stars it was a big two points. Two points that were looking unlikely when they were down 4-1 at one point.

"We knew if we stayed in the game, stayed with our game game plan, get pucks deep and play a little bit more in their end, we would get our breaks and we would get our chances," said Hagman.

The Stars entered the third period down 4-2 but drew a five-on-three power play and cashed in both chances to tie the game.

The first one came at 3:20 when Jere Lehtinen took a cross-ice pass from Sergei Zubov and scored on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle on the five-on-three.

Just 32 seconds later Philippe Boucher scored from the right point while the Stars were still on a five-on-four power play to tie the game at 4-4.

The Stars took the lead at 7:40 when Stephane Robidas set up Hagman on a breakaway with a long pass. Hagman had to spin around to get control of the puck and then after he was pulled down from behind by Oilers defenseman Matt Greene, Hagman swept the puck into the net with his back to the goal.

"I just fell down and tried to swing it towards the net and it went it in," said Hagman.

Marty Turco, who took over for starter Mike Smith in the third period, and the Stars seemed to have the game in the bag when Stefan got the puck in the neutral zone and skated towards and empty net with just seconds to go. But Stefan bobbled the puck and fell down. The Oilers then raced up ice and Ales Hemsky broke in and put a puck past Turco with two seconds left to tie the game at 5-5.

"It was unfortunate for me," Stefan said of the miscue. "The Edmonton guys made a hell of a play to tie it up with two seconds left. .... We played strong in the shootout and won it in the shootout. We still got the two points so I can smile about it and laugh about it now."

That forced the overtime, which was a full five minutes of end-to-end action with no whistles, but no scores.

Zubov and Jussi Jokinen both scored in the shootout for the Stars while Turco stopped Hemsky and Petr Sykora to preserve the win for the Stars. Jokinen scored when he faked a forehand shot to the stick side and then reached back to slide the puck into the open side of the net.

The Oilers struck with two goals off the rush 4:29 into the game to take 2-0 lead. The first one came just 49 seconds in when Ryan Smyth scored he knocked home a rebound of a Joffrey Lupul shot for his sixth goal in the last six games.

Smyth assisted on the next Oilers goal when he made a drop pass to Shawn Horcoff, who beat Smith from the right faceoff circle

The Stars cut the lead to 2-1 at 3:05 off the second period when Stefan scored off the rush at 3:05 of the second period. After executing a give-and-go with Jussi Jokinen, Stefan beat Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson with a perfectly placed shot from the left faceoff circle.

But a little more than a minute later the Oilers scored on a five-on-three power play as Petr Nedved scored off the rebound the Petr Sykora shot at the 4:12 mark.

The Oilers made it 4-1 at the 12:26 mark when Lupul picked off the rebound of a Smyth shot off the endboards and put it into the open side of the net.

The Stars were able to cut the lead to two goals late in the second when Mike Ribeiro and Chris Conner set up Mathias Tjarnqvist, who scored from point blank range in front of the net, which set the stage for the wild third period.

Note: Smith, who started in goal for the Stars, left after the second period. He was knocked off his feet in the second period when a Marc-Andre Bergeron slap shot hit him square on the mask. Smith continued to play but was pulled as a precaution when he started having headaches.

Andrew's Dallas Stars Page has been online since the 1996-97 season. It was created by Mark Stepneski, who continues to run the site.

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