Oilers      3

Vegas     4     OT

Absolute heartbreak for Edmonton in this one as a very well rested Oilers squad showed up to take on an already weary homeside in Vegas. Both squads showed up to play in this one and neither deserved to lose but this had to be particularily difficult for Edmonton to swallow. The Oilers took a 1 goal lead into the third and were controlling the play throughout the frame limiting Vegas opportunities until the dying seconds. With only a dozen seconds left a defensive zone faceoff win seemed all that was needed to secure the victory and when T.Zajac won the draw it should have been it. J Eichel stripped the puck however and tried a desperation shot which was then blocked by J.Slavin....game over right? Nope...somehow the longest 12 seconds in history continued with the puck landing on the hardest shot in the league in the person of S.Weber who blasted the tying goal with 1 second on the clock to force overtime. That would have been enough to send most teams off the deep end but a focused Edmonton squad came back out for overtime and once again had an advantage in play, yet once again it was J.Eichel making his pressence felt tipping a shot past a stunned C. Hellebuyck to steal away game 1. Hard to say a goalie making 40 saves deserved to lose but J.Quick was just a bit better making 45 saves for the win. Vegas up 1-0

Stars      0

Aves      5

GM Bryce apparently wants to exercise all of his demons in one season. Having already managed to get his ass into the playoffs and last a round he now faces his nemesis in GM Junya and his 2 time cup winning Stars with a trip to the western finals in the balance. To say this was a beat down is a bit of an understatement. While the first period was a rather slow "feeling out" period the Aves were able to sneak a 1 goal lead into the intermission. I don't know what was said in the Dallas dressing room between periods but the Stars were not seen again on this evening only managing a combined 7 shots in the following 2 periods and looked totally disinterested. I don't know whether this was just a bad Dallas effort or the Aves are just this good but these are the playoffs and you don't get too many "Mulligans" here. Dallas will need to change something for game 2 regardless! In other notes P. Grubauer continues to make a strong case to be the #1 tender the rest of the way as he improved to 4-0 in these playoffs with the shutout. Aves up 1-0