Oilers forward Ryan McLeod (71) protects the puck from Stars defensemen Miro Heiskanen (4) during the third period at Rogers Place on May 29 in Edmonton. McLeod scored a goal in the 5-2 Oilers victory.Perry Nelson/Reuters
As he stared at a possible 3-1 series deficit on Wednesday, Kris Knoblauch abandoned coaching convention and decided to scratch three healthy players in favour of three he had benched.
The Oilers coach was rewarded with a goal by Ryan McLeod and an assist by Corey Perry in a 5-2 victory over the Stars that evened their playoff series at two wins apiece. Game 5 of the best-of-seven for the Western Conference title will be played in Dallas on Friday.
In the previous round with Edmonton trailing Vancouver 2-1, Knoblauch replaced starting goalie Stuart Skinner with backup Calvin Pickard and that helped to jump-start the Oilers, who went on to win in seven games.
These are weighty decisions for a novice NHL coach at the most pressure-packed time of the season.
“There is not a decision I make without consulting probably five to 12 people,” Knoblauch said late Wednesday. “There is a lot of talk and it goes on for quite a while. There are pros and cons of every decision and hopefully we make the right one. They are tough, especially when the stakes are as high as they are right now.”
For his part, Knoblauch has been pulling the right strings for a while now. The Oilers were 2-9-1 when he was hired to replace Jay Woodcroft and since then the team has had the best record in the league. Including the postseason, Knoblauch is 56-24-5.
He is a former winger and a sixth-round draft pick who never made it to the NHL. In 11 years as a coach at the major-junior and AHL levels, he had only one team with a losing mark. With him at the helm the Erie Otters set a Canadian Hockey League record by winning 50 or more games for four straight seasons. He coached a fellow down there named Connor McDavid.
Knoblauch is quiet and self-deprecating and enjoys the daily repartee with the media. The 45-year-old gives direct, long and thorough answers and rarely dodges a question.
He had the temerity to banish Corey Perry to the press box for a handful of games. Perry, 39, is nearly as old as his coach, and he has made 207 appearances in the postseason. When Knoblauch plugged him in on the second line with McLeod and Leon Draisaitl in Game 4, Perry had an assist on a goal by McLeod that trimmed Dallas’s lead to 2-1.
“When you get pulled out of the lineup it is a tough pill to swallow,” Perry said. “You have to put that aside. You check your ego at the door, you plug away and work hard off the ice until your name is called.”
Perry had not had a point in 10 previous playoff games.
“Corey was great tonight,” Knoblauch said. “How he played is what we were expecting and we love it.”
McLeod had gone 14 games without a point until his first-period goal.
“It is hard to sit and watch the team, so it was really exciting to get back in the lineup,” McLeod said. “I thought I had a little extra juice and it was good to get that goal. It is nice to get that monkey off my back.”
Knoblauch watched from behind the bench as the Oilers fell behind the Stars by two goals in the first 5 minutes 29 seconds. One came on Dallas’s first shot of the game, the other caromed off defenceman Darnell Nurse’s derriere and past Skinner.
“I thought it was going to be long night,” Knoblauch said. “It didn’t look very good. Things weren’t going our way and the Stars looked much sharper. You are down 2-0 in a game like this and it’s hard to overcome.”
The Oilers forged a tie by the end of the first period, scored twice more in the second and had an empty- netter in the third. At the end, fans at Rogers Place chanted, “We want the cup.”
The games between them had been nip and tuck until the Oilers broke out in Game 4. Neither team has been able to carry much momentum from one contest to the next but it is hard not to feel now that Edmonton has a bit of an edge.
The Stars lost defenceman Chris Tanev to a foot injury when he blocked a shot in the second period. He is top notch and if unavailable it will hurt their defence corps.
“He’s one of the ultimate warriors in this league,” Jamie Benn, the Stars captain, said.
The series now boils down to a best of three. The winner advances to the Stanley Cup finals.
“These are two good teams playing and neither of us will lay down,” Joe Pavelski, the Stars’ 39-year-old winger, said. “Both of us can make plays both ways and it shows how fine a line it is between us. It comes down to a few plays that can tip games. It’s that close.”