The Edmonton Oilers and the Dallas Stars are battling in a rematch of last season's Western Conference Finals, again with a berth in the Stanley Cup Final on the line. Game 1 in Dallas has been a roller coaster affair, with both teams trading the momentum back and forth throughout the night.
Oilers star Leon Draisaitl got the scoring started in the first period, taking the puck up the right side of the ice and beating Stars goalie Jake Oettinger stick side to open the scoring in the series.
DRAISAITL OPENS THE SCORING 🔥 pic.twitter.com/go1dzUbUtA
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 22, 2025
With that goal, Draisaitl has now scored the opening goal in 12 different playoff games during his illustrious career, moving into third on the Oilers' all-time playoff leaderboard in that department. He passed Jari Kurri and Mark Messier on the list, according to the NHL on X, formerly Twitter.
This was a big goal for Draisaitl, who was on a three-game stretch without scoring a goal dating back to the second round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
As they always do, the Oilers will be depending heavily on both Draisaitl and Connor McDavid to get a lot of their offense going in this series against a Stars group that has a ton of depth and an elite goalie in Oettinger. The two superstars are certainly more than capable of carrying the load when Edmonton has the puck, but they will still need contributions from the rest of the roster to beat a very good Stars team.
Edmonton used that initial goal by its star to jump out to a 3-1 lead through two periods. Unfortunately for Draisaitl, the Oilers were unable to hang onto that lead, as the Stars got the third period underway by netting three power-play goals in the first six minutes of the period to take a 4-3 lead.
After the Oilers failed to capitalize on a power play of their own, the Stars added a pair of goals to make it a 5-0 third period and a 6-3 victory in Game 1. As a result, Draisaitl and McDavid have their work cut out for them over the rest of this series to make a comeback.