Some teams perform better when they are against the wall. The [Dallas Stars](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-stars) find themselves in that situation.<\/p>\n\nThe [Edmonton Oilers](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/edm\/edmonton-oilers) lead the Stars 3-1 in the Western Conference finals, heading into Game 5 on Thursday night.\n\n
Can the Stars force a Game 6 in Alberta? Or will the Oilers seal their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, joining the [Florida Panthers](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/fla\/florida-panthers) for the second year in a row?<\/p>\n\n\n
Dallas Stars vs. Edmonton Oilers<\/strong><\/p>\n\nGame 5 | 8 p.m. ET\n\nThe Oilers’ odds to win the Western Conference Finals are now at -1200, up from -375 before Game 4. Meanwhile, the Stars’ odds to win the series are now at +600, up from +280 when the series was 2-1. Edmonton is now +110 to win the Cup, while Dallas is +1400. [Connor McDavid](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3895074\/connor-mcdavid) leads the Conn Smythe odds list, at +130; [Leon Draisaitl](http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3114727\/leon-draisaitl) (+650) is the only other player in this series under 10-1.\n\n Edmonton now has a 6-1 home record this postseason, outscoring their opponents 33-17. The Oilers have a 17-1 record in best-of-seven series when leading 3-1; their only loss was in the 1989 division semifinals against the [Los Angeles Kings](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/la\/los-angeles-kings).<\/p>\n\nDallas has been outscored 10-0 on the road in the first period this postseason, becoming the first team in Stanley Cup playoff history to not score a goal in the first period on the road in eight games of a single playoff year. They have lost all 16 best-of-seven series when trailing 3-1.\n\nDraisaitl scored a power-play goal and an assist in Game 4, the 13th game-opening goal of a playoff game in his career, which ties [Wayne Gretzky](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4128\/wayne-gretzky) and [Glenn Anderson](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4477\/glenn-anderson) for the most in franchise history. It was his 20th career power-play goal in the postseason, placing him fourth in Oilers franchise history, behind Gretzky (23), [Jari Kurri](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4407\/jari-kurri) (22), and Anderson (22).\n\n With another multi-point game, McDavid now has more career playoff games with two or more points (45) than with one or zero points combined (44).<\/p>\n\n[Stuart Skinner](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4268767\/stuart-skinner) has a 5-1 record in his last six starts, and his 24th playoff win puts him ahead of [Andy Moog](https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/moogan01.html) for third place in franchise history; [Bill Ranford](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/758\/bill-ranford) is second with 25, while [Grant Fuhr](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/289\/grant-fuhr) is number 1 with 74.\n\n[Jason Robertson](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4233875\/jason-robertson) scored a power-play goal in the Game 4 loss. His seven power-play goals in the last four postseasons are the most for the Stars in that span.\n\n Dallas player, [Mikko Rantanen](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3899938\/mikko-rantanen), finished without goals on two shots on goal. He now has a seven-game scoreless streak, which is the longest in a single postseason (2022, with the [Colorado Avalanche](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/col\/colorado-avalanche)).<\/p>\n\n With his next win, Stars’ goalie, [Jake Oettinger](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4196914\/jake-oettinger), will move up in the ranking of playoff wins by a U.S.-born goalie. His 32 are tied for fourth with [Jon Casey](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4487\/jon-casey) and [Frank Brimsek](https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/brimsfr01.html), behind [Tom Barrasso](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/40\/tom-barrasso) (61), [Jonathan Quick](http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3634\/jonathan-quick) (49), and [Mike Richter](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/781\/mike-richter) (41).<\/p>\n\n\n [Connor McDavid](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3895074\/connor-mcdavid), C, [Edmonton Oilers](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/edm\/edmonton-oilers)<\/p>\n\nGP: 15 | G: 5 | A: 19\n\n [Mikko Rantanen](https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3899938\/mikko-rantanen), RW, [Dallas Stars](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-stars)<\/p>\n\nGP: 17 | G: 9 | A: 12","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some teams perform better when they are against the wall. The [Dallas Stars](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-stars) find themselves in that situation. The [Edmonton Oilers](\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/edm\/edmonton-oilers) lead the Stars 3-1 in the Western Conference finals, heading into Game 5 on Thursday night. Can the Stars force a Game 6 in Alberta? Or will the Oilers seal their ticket to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1169,457,454,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-7928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-dallas-stars","9":"tag-edmonton-oilers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-playoffs"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Leaders in Annotations<\/h2>\n\n\n