'We got away from our game': Oilers coach looking for team to regroup after Game 3 loss

Kris Knoblauch needed someone — anyone — to step up.

The Oilers were taking on water after a flying start to Game 3 of the NHL's Western Conference final.

Connor McDavid had been shot out of a cannon, setting up Edmonton's first goal and scoring another in Monday's quick-strike opening 20 minutes that saw the home side lead 2-0 and hold the Dallas Stars to just three shots.

The momentum, however, was resoundingly flipped after the intermission. And the Oilers didn't respond nearly quick enough.

Every line Knoblauch, the team's rookie head coach, sent over the boards in that disastrous 10-minute stretch to open the second was on its heels as the Stars poured into the offensive zone in white-and-green waves.

McDavid's trio couldn't get traction. Leon Draisaitl's and his wingers didn't have any luck either. It was more of the same from the third and fourth units.

Before they knew it, the Oilers were down 3-2.

Edmonton would eventually get back on stable ground, tying the score 3-3, before Dallas winger Jason Robertson completed his hat trick midway through the third period in a 5-3 victory that pushed the Stars ahead 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

"We got away from our game," Knoblauch said Tuesday.

"I don't want to take anything away from Dallas. They played a much better period in the second period than they did in the first. But I look back at what we were doing.

"There's some things that we weren't doing the second period that we were in the first."

That included failing to make simple plays at the Oilers' blue line and missed assignments in the defensive zone — a lack of attention to detail that has popped up at different points this spring. Edmonton blew a 4-1 lead in Game 1 against the Vancouver Canucks in the