Wyatt Johnston and Esa Lindell scored, Jamie Benn had two assists, and Jake Oettinger made 24 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central Division.
“We’ll reset here, going to learn from it, and we’ve got a great opportunity in front of us,” Benn said. “Best-of-3 on home ice here, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Dallas took a 1-0 lead on the first shot of the game 58 seconds into the first period. Johnston skated into a lofted pass from Benn just inside the blue line before beating Skinner glove side from the left circle.
Lindell made it 2-0 at 5:29 with a wrist shot from the left point that deflected in off the back of Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
“We got up 2-0, got the start we wanted, but I don’t think we had enough guys playing at a high enough level,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “The rest of the game they were the better team. That’s the bottom line.”
McLeod, who was a healthy scratch in Game 3, cut it to 2-1 at 13:30 of the first. He lifted in a puck at the right post after Oettinger couldn’t cover the rebound of Corey Perry‘s shot from the right circle.
It was the first point of the playoffs for both McLeod and Perry, who had been a healthy scratch the previous five games.
Bouchard tied it 2-2 at 16:17 of the first, scoring into an open net after a shot by McDavid produced a big rebound off Oettinger’s left pad.
