DALLAS — Christmas is supposed to be a time of year where you get what you deserve.
If you’re nice, you get a gift. If you’re naughty, it’s a sock full of coal.
The system works.
The Edmonton Oilers were starting to wonder if all that Santa Clause stuff is really true, however, after three-straight 4-3 losses in which they absolutely deserved better, and 52 more hard minutes in Dallas that weren’t paying off, either.
Then, Warren Foegele’s sweet one-timer with eight minutes left in the third period Wednesday sparked a three-goal outburst and a huge 6-3 upset victory over the Central Division-leading Stars.
“Huge win, huge team win and it was nice to get it in front of the dads, obviously,” said winger Zach Hyman, adding the having the fathers and mentors in the building on the Dads Trip might have pushed them over the top.
“You can’t not get a win for them. Today was a big step against a really good team.”
Up until the 52-minute mark, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid didn’t have a point in the game. In the previous 37 times that happened, the Oilers were 4-30-3.
So the team needed something, quick. Sure enough, Draisaitl set up Foegele for the winner and McDavid added the insurance marker and that was that. Mattias Janmark slid his second goal of the night into an empty net.
“They’ve been playing some really good hockey, so this was a really big test for us on the road,” said Janmark. “We were coming off some tough losses. You definitely don’t want to be going into the break on a losing streak.”
The win improves Edmonton to 1-0-1 on the Dads Trip and 18-14-2 on the season.
“We had a solid effort in Nashville, as well,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “So, to come out of this trip with three of four points under tough circumstances with all the games we’ve played this month (11 in the 21 days) I was really proud of our effort tonight.”
These are points the Oilers, tied with Calgary for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference when play began, needed desperately.
Woodcroft mixed up his lines for this one, splitting up McDavid and Draisaitl for the first time in 13 games to counter the Stars offensive depth and it seemed to ignite the group.
“Different teams present different challenges,” said Woodcroft. “The Stars are a well-coached, well-oiled machine. They’re leading their division for a reason and we felt it was time to do a few other things. I thought it served us well.”
The smart money was on Dallas, though.
The Oilers were winless in their last three games, playing decently enough, but finding a way to come out on the wrong end of things all three times, while the Stars were running hot, playing their first game back at home after a 3-1-1 road trip.
With the way Edmonton was going, and the way Dallas was going, and what happened last time they met (6-2 Stars), it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to expect a Dallas onslaught, but it never came.
Yes, Dallas opened the scoring when Roope Hintz potted a nice one-timer off the rush at 14:49, but it took just 1:06 before Janmark scored an easy tap-in off a feed from Klim Kostin to square up what was an evenly-played first period.
The second period? Now that was a bit of a different story. Like, as in 27 seconds in it was 2-1 Dallas.
But still no onslaught. Zach Hyman came right back and tied it on the power play, marking the sixth-straight time the Oilers have answered an opposition goal (in regulation, of course) with one of their own.
Their first lead since the first period of the Anaheim loss came six minutes later when the red-hot Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 18th goal of the season, and fourth in three games, to make it 3-2 Oilers. It also marked the first time in four games that Edmonton scored two even-strength goals in a game.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last very long. Tyler Seguin’s power play deflection at 17:56 made it 3-3 after two periods and set up a final 20 minutes for all the marbles.
“We played tight, didn’t give them much and got a great goal, Leon made a great play to Fogey and he buried it,” said Hyman. “And Connor’s goal gave us a little cushion.”
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @Rob_Tychkowski
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