EDMONTON — After falling behind 2-0, the Edmonton Oilers rattled off 5-straight goals en route to a series-tying 5-2 win in the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday night.
One of the underlying storylines going into the game had to do with Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse, who had been under intense scrutiny for his play so far in the series. There was even some speculation after Game 3 that he should be benched.
In the beginning, this got off to a bad start, as Nurse was on the ice during Dallas' two goal in the first 5:29 of the game. To add insult to injury, a shot from Esa Lindell deflected off Nurse's posterior and past goalie Stuart Skinner.
But Nurse didn't crumble under the pressure and provided an inspiring performance for the rest of the Oilers team. He recovered from the rough start to assist on Ryan McLeod's first-period goal that cut the lead to 2-1.
"That would've been really hard for a lot of guys to recover from after everything that's been going on," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "But personally, I thought it was his best game in the series. Maybe in the playoffs."
Evan Bouchard tied the game just minutes after McLeod's with a goal off a rebound of Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.
The Oilers took the lead for good in the opening minutes of the second, as Mattias Janmark took a cross-ice pass from Connor Brown for a shorthanded goal. Then 51 seconds later, the Oilers capitalized off a turnover in the neutral zone and Leon Draisaitl buried a shot past Oettinger to make it 4-2.
Mattias Ekholm added an empty-netter at the 18:07 mark to finish off the win.
Game 5 will be in Dallas on Friday night.
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