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Leon Draisaitl Comments on Edmonton's ‘Collapse' to the Dallas Stars Last Night
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Leon Draisaitl provided comments on the Edmonton Oilers' 'collapse' against the Dallas Stars last night in the first game of the Western Conference Finals.

Going into the third period of the first game against the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers looked like the better team on the ice, and with a 3-1 lead, truly seemed like they would win.

However, the team had no answer for the five straight goals scored in the third period by the Dallas Stars:

After that disappointing result, the Oilers were brutally honest in their post-game comments.

Leon Draisaitl revealed that the team has to look at it and make sure they correct it before Game 2:

'We give up three goals in a row on the kill. It just kills the momentum, and then you're chasing the game.'

'The game changes from there. We've got to be an awful lot more mature than that.'

'The game got away from us through the kill and then our power play, when you have a chance to tie it, wasn't much better. We have to look at it and correct it.'

Oilers' goalie Stuart Skinner also shared insights:

'Obviously we let down our guard for five or six minutes and got into some penalty trouble. They were coming out hot, momentum kind of shifted for them in that moment, and obviously it bit us. It's up to us to learn from, myself included obviously, and we have to get better from it.'

'It's a tough pill to swallow. You just can't be doing that, especially at playoff time, especially against a team like this. They know how to score goals. They are a mature team, and I know we have it in us as well; we've done it many, many times and we'll let it sit for a little bit, and we'll get back at it for sure.'

As for defenseman Darnell Nurse, he talked about the penalty kill struggles:

'We have to kill better, it's as simple as that. They have a good power play, but when we're playing the way we can, and we've shown it in the playoffs, our penalty kill can be very good, too. We have to be better in that department, all of us, to a man. Whether it's a battle, a clear, or a block-whatever play has to be made on the PK-we have to make it. And we didn't do that enough tonight.'

The Oilers will need to bounce back tomorrow to avoid getting a 0-2 deficit to climb back from.

This article first appeared on House of Hockey and was syndicated with permission.

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