Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid had a chance to put the game away in the first overtime Thursday night. He didn't miss in the second overtime.
McDavid redirected an Evan Bouchard pass past Jake Oettinger 32 seconds into the second overtime to give the Oilers a 3-2 victory against the Dallas Stars and 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference final.
The goal, just the third of the playoffs for McDavid to go along with 20 assists, capped off a busy overtime for the Oilers captain. He had been robbed by Oettinger with about five minutes left in the first overtime. The Stars goalie waited him out and made a stick save.
"Apologies to everyone for keeping everyone up a little bit longer," McDavid told TNT after the game. "It should have gone in. It has to go in. He's a good goalie and he scrambles, made a good play, but that has to go in."
To even get to that point, the Oilers had to kill off a four-minute penalty to McDavid for high-sticking Dallas' Matt Duchene. The Stars got five shots and hit two posts on that early-overtime power play.
"It was really, really long. Miserable," McDavid told reporters. "I hated every second of it, but the guys did an amazing job. ... The penalty kill has just been amazing (league-best 92.5%) and to step in there four minutes against a really good power play, you can't give those guys enough credit."
The Stars have now lost the opener of seven consecutive series, though it hasn't hurt them this year. They overcame a 2-0 deficit against the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round and a 1-0 deficit to the Colorado Avalanche in the second round.
The Oilers are ahead of where they were during their last Western Conference final appearance, when they were swept by the Avalanche in 2022.
Edmonton's stars gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead in the second period. Leon Draisaitl scored to give him a point in every game this postseason and Zach Hyman didn't give up on a puck after a pass from McDavid was broken up. Hyman regained possession and beat Oettinger for his league-leading 12th playoff goal.
Dallas' Tyler Seguin also didn't give up on a puck to get the Stars back into the game. Jamie Benn stickhandled Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner out of position after an Edmonton giveaway and slid the puck across the crease. Seguin fought off defenseman Brett Kulak and took a couple shots before scoring.
Seguin forced overtime with 3:23 left in the third period when Jason Robertson's shot was deflected by Evgenii Dadonov to Seguin, who had a wide-open shot.
Oettinger had to come up with a big save when Edmonton's Dylan Holloway had a breakaway on the next shift.
Edmonton and Dallas had the same lineups as they did in their clinching games in the second round. Stars top-line forward Roope Hintz sat out again with an upper-body injury but coach Peter DeBoer said he's getting close to returning.
If Hintz can play in Game 2 on Saturday, it could help the Stars as they try again to rally from a 1-0 series deficit.