20/20: Stars outplay Oilers on paper, but 46-second stretch in first period too much to overcome

It's a 2-1 series lead for the Oilers.

Just like the last playoff game between the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers in Alberta, the Stars had more quantity but the Oilers had the vital quality in a 6-1 win to take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference Final.

Here is the 20/20.

1. The game was decided during a 46-second stretch in the first period.

The officials missed a penalty, a puck-over-the glass infraction by Brett Kulak, and then the Oilers scored twice.

That ended the game.

Sure, there were still close to 45 minutes left in the game, but that sequence of events doomed the Stars.

Or better yet, the Stars let that sequence doom them.

I think that’s an important distinction here, because while we can all agree there was a missed call, it’s how a team responds to a missed call that matters the most.

The Stars responded with poor decisions and frustration, allowing things to snowball into larger problems.

They were screwed, we can agree on that. We can also point proper blame to the team itself for allowing that to define them and credit the Oilers to seizing an opportunity at the same time on the following shift.

For all the pushback later, and we will talk about that, the Stars created their own mountain to climb. And when Dallas was slowly working it’s way up the mountain, Edmonton was finding way to sting on the rush the other way.