Mattias Janmark had two goals and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers scored a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars Wednesday night.
“We’ve played a lot of games, we’ve weathered some major injuries,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. “We’re starting to return people to health and we’re building some things in our game. And to take two points out of this building against that team — I think it’s a positive for us.”
The teams traded goals 1:06 apart in the first. Stars forward Roope Hintz beat Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner with a one-timer on a three-on-two.
The Oilers responded when Klim Kostin set up Janmark for a tap-in.
Wyatt Johnston broke in down the right side and beat Skinner top corner to put the Stars up 2-1 just 27 seconds into the second.
Oilers winger Zach Hyman punched in his 15th on the power play less than three minutes later.
The Oilers grabbed their first lead of the night when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ sharp-angle wrister ticked Ryan Suter’s stick and eluded Stars netminder Jake Oettinger.
Tyler Seguin’s power-play deflection made it 3-3 late in the second.
With 8:14 left in the third, Dallas defenceman Miro Heiskanen turned the puck over to Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl, who fed Warren Foegele for a blast that beat Oettinger.
Oilers captain Connor McDavid buried his 29th on a two-on-one with 3:43 remaining. Janmark added an empty-netter not long after.
Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists. Skinner made 25 saves.
“It’s a tough place to come in and play,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “They don’t make it easy on you. We knew that coming in and obviously wanted a big bounce back game. So, I thought just the way that we worked and didn’t trade chances, we just took advantage when we got some looks, and overall I thought it was one of the best 60 minutes we’ve played all year.”
The Oilers (18-14-2) will host the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. You can listen to live coverage of the game on 630 CHED, beginning with The Faceoff Show at 5:30 p.m. The actual game starts at 7 p.m.