Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner recorded a shutout once again this post-season.
The Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 in Game 2 of the Western Conference final to tie the series at 1-1. While Edmonton blew a 3-1 lead in the third period of Game 1’s 6-3 loss, the away team held on while being outshot 9-2 in the final frame of Game 2.
Skinner stopped 25 shots in the game, including a massive third-period stick save on Stars defenseman Esa Lindell. The blueliner had a wide-open net, but Skinner reached across to the right and got the heel of his stick on the ice to redirect the puck just past the left side of the net.
The 26-year-old Skinner recorded a 2.87 goals-saved-above-expected rating, which factors in the quality of chances, according to moneypuck.com.
Friday night’s performance adds to an up-and-down playoffs for the goaltender.
“It’s a rollercoaster,” Skinner told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan while sitting on the bench post-game. “It’s every playoffs. I mean, no matter what happens, there’s a lot of highs, there’s a lot of lows. It doesn’t matter who you are, what team you are. You’re just going to face those challenges.”
Skinner now has three shutouts in the 2024-25 NHL playoffs, tying Florida Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky for the league lead.
Bobrovsky, however, has played twice as many games as Skinner, at 14 to 7. They also have the same number of losses, at four. And Bobrovsky won seven other games without recording shutouts. Skinner hasn’t.
In fact, Skinner kept an intriguing stat alive in Game 2: he’s either won by recording a shutout or lost with a save percentage of .833 or below in these playoffs.
He allowed a combined 11 goals in his first two games against the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1, both losses, before the Oilers ran with Calvin Pickard for the rest of the round. Pickard went 6-0 to eliminate the Kings and take a 2-0 series lead against the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round before suffering an injury.
Skinner had an .833 save percentage when returning to the lineup in Game 3 of that series, when the Golden Knights scored with less than a second left in regulation to win 4-3. But Skinner responded with back-to-back shutouts to help the Oilers book their place in the Western Conference final for the second straight time and third time in four years.
With Pickard remaining out of the lineup to start the series against the Stars, Skinner stopped 16 of 17 shots through the first two periods of Game 1 before conceding three power-play goals and an even-strength goal on 10 shots in the third period. The Oilers were more disciplined in Game 2, going 2-for-2 on the penalty kill while outhitting the Stars 50-29.
Nearly every time after Skinner lost, the burning question is whether the Oilers should put another goalie in net, whether it’s a healthy Pickard or third-stringer Olivier Rodrigue. After every shutout, there are signs of a goaltender who can get the job done in the biggest games of the year.
“For me, it’s just rinse and repeat, just keep on going,” Skinner said. “You can let in five and still give it your all, so I mean, that’s kind of what our whole mindset was as a team. I thought we played well (in Game 1), and sometimes, the score doesn’t really tell you the whole picture, and we just went back out there and played the same way.”
Skinner said gaining experience, such as backstopping the Oilers to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final last season, can really change a person’s mindset.
“It really tells you that you’re never out, no matter what position you’re in until they actually don’t allow you to play anymore,” he said.
He also gave his teammates credit for helping him get that mindset.
“It truly does take a community,” Skinner told Kaplan. “It takes a city, takes a lot of people to really help you persevere, go through different challenges, adversities, and mainly your teammates. The way the guys play in front of me, day in, day out, no matter what situation we’re in, I mean, that’s all it is.”
Game 3 goes down in Edmonton on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
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