Streaks collide in Dallas but the Oilers manage to pull out a 3-1 win to keep their playoff hopes afloat.

Lineup
Smyth	Horcoff	York	Brewer	Smith
Torres	Nedved	Dvorak	Semenov	Staios
Moreau	Stoll	Laraque	Bergeron	Ulanov
Isbister	Oates	Pisani
			Markkanen
			Conklin
Scratched: Reasoner, Cross are day-to-day. Hemsky, Chimera, Ferguson

Postgame

We all knew it had to end. But who had the guts to pick tonight's game as the absolute date that the Oilers would finally beat the Stars in Dallas? Sure, Ron Tugnutt was in Marty Turco's stead thanks to a slash to the mouth of Ryan Smyth and all of Scott Young, Jere Lethinen, Jason Arnott, Rob Dimaio, Stu Barnes, Sergei Zubov and Jon Klemm were out of the lineup. But none of those guys were in the lineup last Wednesday either when the Oilers blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before finally losing in overtime.

Factor that in with the fact that Dallas has ended an Oilers season so many times before and this one looked like a lock for the Stars. The Oilers hadn't won in Dallas since Jan of '96 and the Stars hadn't lost at home in their last 17 tries.

So why bother to show up?

The Oilers saw differently and imposed their will and walked away with a 3-1 win pockmarked with traits that have never before surfaced in Dallas.

The first thing was the Oilers took fewer penalties than Dallas. The second thing was the Oilers didn't allow any PP goals to the Stars. Most shockingly the Oilers won the special teams battle and it would be Ryan Smyth's man advantaged marker a little over midway through the second period that would be the game winner.

Ty Conklin drew the start and once again Craig Mactavish picked a hot hand as the tender stopped 29 of 30 shots. He was particularily effective early on when the Oilers came out flat and the Stars threw 11 shots Ty's way. His only blemish of the frame would be his only of the period and it came when noted Oilers killer Pierre Turgeron swept in the puck with less than four minutes remaining.

Radek Dvorak had the Oilers best chance of the first period and it was only fitting he would open Edmonton's scoring in the second period. Igor Ulanov made a nice pinch to keep the play going to the right of Tugnutt and eventually Raffi Torres found Dvorak with a pass just above the crease and Radek slapped it home for his 15th goal of the season.

Ryan Smyth's powerplay marker came in the second half of a four minute powerplay that was awarded the Oilers off a high stick on the person of Igor Ulanov. The refs fingered the wrong culprit and Brendan Morrow took the place of what should have been Mike Modano and that looked unfortunate for the road side as the shifty centre was leading a penalty killing effort that was as dangerous as the assumed attackers.

But Adam Oates and Mike York played catch down low and the former would find Smyth on the lip of the crease and it was 2-1 with the Oilers grabbing a rare Texan lead.

Of course the last time they were there they had a 4-1 lead late in the second period but would eventually collapse to lose in OT.

But this team seemed different and showed a rare defensive steel in keeping the Stars to exactly zero scoring chances in the final frame. It was a nice gesture towards Ty Conklin who did a great job in the first 40 minutes with five bell saves off Modano and Valeri Bure.

Marc-Andre Bergeron gave the Oilers some cushion with less than eight minutes left when he scored off the right point with the teams skating four aside and Igor Ulanov screening Tugnutt who was caught deep in his net.

Bergeron's shot hit the far post and went in and the Oilers now hit Vancouver nestled in 8th place but with a tonne of scoreboard watching to do before hitting the ice at GM Place on Saturday night.

Anything can happen.

Tonight proved it.

Three Stars

Ryan Smyth - Scored the winner and could've had three more. Finished at -1 in just over 21 minutes of icetime but was a force all night.

Radek Dvorak - Potted his 15th and had an assist besides and finished the night on a positive note despite missing two glorious chances.

Took the high stick from Modano that limited his icetime to 15:18 but he finished +2 on the evening and made two very subtle plays in the Dallas zone that lead to goals.

Out of Town Scoreboard

Tomorrow night Canadian viewers can check out TSN to see the Wings visit the 7th place Blues. Meanwhile the 9th place Preds with their two games in hand will use one of them in Chicago. Things are so dicey at that this point the Oilers could hit the ice on Saturday night needing just one point to clinch a playoff spot. But if the Preds win their game tomorrow night and then win against the visiting Blues in Saturday afternoon's huge Western Conference affair while the Blues pick up two points in their next two games, the playoff situation could be settled before the Oilers get their next say.

Oil Gauge

It was hard not to give York a start in this game. Seemingly out of the blue his confidence came back when handling the puck and he was positively dangling in this game. He played 17:52 of very effective icetime and made a great pass to Smyth for the marker. He also controlled the ice during one powerplay late in the second period...I will go out on a limb here and say that Bergeron played a career high 22:07 on this evening. He picked up the slack once Ulanov got hurt as MacTavish was loathe to increase the minutes of Semenov who was back in for an ailing Cross. Bergeron is showing more and more of an aptitude for jumping into the play....Wasn't it refreshing to watch the Oilers in Dallas without their netminder killing them with a soft goal? Ron Tugnutt wasn't horrible and he made three or four great stops but he was caught off guard on the Bergeron slapper and for once the Edmonton netminder didn't get outplayed. Conklin was great and looked very quiet and comfortable in his crease and did a great job on his rebound control which really seems to be his main plague early in his career.

Next Game

Oilers visit Vancouver for the late game on HNIC. Try to find something else to do tomorrow night instead of scoreboard watching, OK?