The Edmonton Oilers have been one of the surprise teams in the NHL during the lockout shortened season, but the team is in an offensive slump as they host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night.
The Oilers are trying to avoid a fourth straight loss, as well as five straight defeats at the hands of the Stars. Edmonton started off hot, scoring three or more goals in four of the first five games, but since then, the Oilers haven't scored more than two in the past four games. After beating Phoenix last Wednesday 2-1 in overtime, the team has gone just 0-1-2.
"The bottom line is we have to score more goals," forward Taylor Hall told the Oilers' official website. "Their goalie can only make so many saves for so long before we start scoring."
The Oilers have had trouble getting shots on net and keeping leads. The team was up 2-0 against Vancouver on Monday, but once the Canucks tied things up in the third period, Edmonton fell apart in overtime, losing 3-2.
The team got a rare power play goal from Ales Hemsky, while Ryan Smyth had a short-handed score and Devan Dubnyk made a season high with 37 saves to give him a 1.74 goals-against average in his last five starts.
"It's good to get points," said Dubnyk. "We had opportunities to close it out. But we need to get two and not one."
The Oilers picked the wrong time to need a win, as Dallas has dominated Edmonton recently, winning nine of the past 10 contests, all of them coming in regulation. Last season the Stars won all four games and has beaten the Oilers the past two times by a 3-1 score.
The Stars will rely on Jamie Benn, who has eight goals and four assists in 10 career games versus Edmonton. Benn added his first multi-goal game of the season in a 3-2 win at Colorado on Monday and he had the game-winner after Dallas allowed two goals to tie things up,.
"I thought there was more composure and more focus on what we needed to do," coach Glen Gulutzan told the Stars' official website. "Games are going to be like this, it's a tough league, everyone is playing hard. We've got to stay focused."
The Stars have played well defensively, but they have yet to win back-to-back games and they have the lowest scoring offense with 2.0 goals per game. The team has also struggled on the power play, going 2-for-29 to give them the 26th percentage in the league.
Michael Ryder is leading the team with four goals, but he has only scored one in the past five games, so Dallas will need him to step up. Goalie Kari Lehtonen has been the MVP for the team so far and made 29 saves in Monday's game. He has had great success against the Oilers and is 7-2-0 with a 2.12 GAA versus Edmonton. He stopped 67 of 70 shots while going 3-0-0 against the Oilers in 2011-12.
The Oilers are ranked 22nd in the league with 2.3 goals per game, but they have been excellent on the power play, converting 28.6 percent, ranked third in the league. The Stars will also have to watch out, as their penalty kill is ranked sixth.
