Oilers     4

Vegas     2

In what has to be considered a huge upset the Edmonton Oilers have beat Las Vegas in their own rink to advance in the Weatern conference to face the Dallas Stars. This is certainly not to diminish what GM Leon has accomplished or a negative reflection of the current roster but Vegas was solid from top to bottom and had proven themselves throughout the year to be a top contender. The Oilers did themselves the biggest of favours by playing a complete defensive game limiting the hometown Knights scoring opportunities throughout only allowing 25 shots against for the game. This was of the utmost importance due to the health of starting goalie C. Hellebuyck who came into the game at less then 100% and would likely have crumbled if forced into a heavy workload. Every year it is said that every team needs some verteran leadership regardless of the talent level of the team and apparently there is some truth to that as B.Connolly picked the perfect time to lead by example. Brett scored all 3 Oiler goals, the third late on the PP, to lead his team to the victory. Matt Calvert got the empty netter to seal it shortly thereafter but Connolly was clearly the most important guy on the ice this evening. The most ironic thing about this game was the only reason we had gotten to this point of having a game 7 was Vegas inability to contain the likes of McDavid, Stamkos, and Kuznetsev. On this night Vegas not only contained the big 3 but you couldn't find any of them with a search warrant and yet still lost! Congrats to GM Leon on advancing.....lets not be too worried about GM Bast however as his team is still built around a young dynamic group and we will see more of him soon! Oilers on to Dallas