Dallas Stars ousted in what might have been 'our best game' - ESPN

When it came to what the Dallas Stars did in Game 6, captain Jamie Benn said it was likely his team's best performance of the Western Conference finals.

It was also the one that saw the Stars get eliminated in Game 6 of a West finals for the second year in a row.

Despite taking three times the shots and owning the puck 75% of the time, the Stars fell short in a 2-1 loss Sunday to the Edmonton Oilers, who reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006.

«You could probably argue that was our best game of the series,» Benn said. «It just didn't go our way.»

Entering Game 6, the goal for the Stars was to echo the comeback they mounted in the first round of the playoffs, when after falling to a two-game deficit against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas ended up winning the series in seven games.

This time, the Stars grabbed a 2-1 series lead before the Oilers scored a combined eight goals in their Games 4 and 5 wins, giving them a chance to clinch in six. A Stars' victory Sunday would have forced a deciding game in Dallas, giving coach Peter DeBoer a chance to extend his record to 8-0 in Game 7s.

Instead, the Stars' flight back to Dallas will start an offseason powered by the reality that they're still in a championship window.

«We went through a gauntlet and beat some really good teams and knew we had something special,» Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. «We lost to a team that we thought we could beat and sometimes, that's playoffs. Sometimes, it's that one bounce, that one goal, that one save. That's why we all love it. That's why it's the hardest damn trophy in the world to win.»

Edmonton had a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period after Connor McDavid deked his way to the net