DALLAS — Mason Marchment scored for the first time since the playoff opener and the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Saturday night to even the Western Conference finals at a game each.
Marchment broke a tie at 3:41 of the third period when he deflected a shot that went through the legs of defenseman Vincent Desharnais, then bounced on the ice and went between the right arm and body of goalie Stuart Skinner. Stars defenseman Ryan Suter, whose 1,444 career regular-season games without a Stanley Cup title are the most among active players, shot the puck from against the board just inside the blue line that Marchment deflected.
«We've got to play like it's Game 7. We're so close, so it's just got to be a Game 7 mentality for the rest of this ride here,» Marchment said.
Stars captain Jamie Benn had a goal and assisted on Esa Lindell's empty-netter with 2:03 left. Wyatt Johnston had two assists.
Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 28 shots, including a reaching glove save on Mattias Ekholm's shot with about 3½ minutes left, and also gathered in the Edmonton defenseman's long shot about a half-minute after that.
Connor Brown had Edmonton's goal. Skinner, who had won the previous three games since being sitting two games in the last round, stopped 22 shots.
Game 3 is Monday night in Edmonton, where the Stars won 4-3 in their only trip there this season. That was Nov. 2 during the Oilers' 3-9-1 start that led to Jay Woodcroft getting fired as coach and replaced by Kris Knoblauch.
This was the seventh consecutive time the Stars went into Game 2 of a best-of-seven playoff series coming off a loss, including all three this postseason. Marchment had scored in their 4-3 loss to Vegas in the playoff opener April 22,
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