The Oilers bounce the Stars (literally) from the playoffs to setup a rematch against the Panthers, and the Abbotsford Canucks get OT heroics from an unlikely source to take Game One against Texas.

LAST NIGHT'S ACTION

EDMONTON OILERS 6 DALLAS STARS 3 (Oilers win series 4-1)

There were two main questions facing the Dallas Stars heading into Game Five last night. Could they get the scoring that they haven't been getting, and would Jake Oettinger steal a game for them. Well, after two shots in the first period, the latter was a definite no.

Oettinger was pulled after the Oilers scored on their first two shots, just seven minutes into the game, replaced by former Canuck Casey DeSmith. So this is where they turn things around, as coach Pete DeBoer sends his team a message and they respond accordingly, right?

Wrong.

Jeff Skinner scored his first career playoff goal on the very next shot. Sure, Dallas would make it 3-2 in the second period, and it looked for a moment like they had some fight in them, but after Roope Hintz's PPG got the Stars to within one, it took just two minutes and other insanely fortunate Oilers bounce to Connor McDavid to shut that down. The Stars would get one more, but it's clear they were already broken.

What no one saw coming was this:

Yeah, that's a pretty awful look, even if it's not 100% in context.

So once again, we're left with a South Park Stanley Cup series. Joy. I suppose the only possible good thing to come out of it would be a Canadian team winning the Cup, though I genuinely do not believe this bunch of bastards have what it takes. So I won't be cheering for either team to win. I don't want to live in a world where Oilers fans get to be happy, and have good things happen to them.

Game One goes on June 4th. We will be doing game threads for the Abbotsford Canucks to cover some of the gap.

ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS 3 TEXAS STARS 2 (OT) (Canucks lead series 1-0)

The Abbotsford Canucks have been getting some timely goals from their defence through this playoff run, and last night an unlikely one stepped up to be the hero. Veteran blueliner Christian Wolanin scored at 5:51 of OT to give the Canucks a 3-2 win and take a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Finals.

The Canucks penalty killing continued its stellar run, and while there was only one Texas penalty to kill off, it was a massive one, as Jonathan Lekkerimaki took a high sticking penalty with just over three minutes to go in the third.

Ty Mueller had a goal and an assist, and Linus Karlsson assisted on both Mueller's goal and the first period marker from Guillaume Brisebois. Both goalies were outstanding in this one, as Arturs Silovs made 36 saves, and Texas' Remi Poirier stopped 43 Abbotsford shots. Game Two goes Saturday night at 7 pm PDT at the Abbotsford Centre.