Make the Oilers feel it in Game 5 at AAC, then take the series back to Rogers Place and try to buck the trend. The playoffs shouldn’t end like each of the last three games, with the Stars on their heels and Oilers at their throats.

In the world of heavy knee and shin pads, a slash normally doesn’t do enough damage to derail an NHL player; but the slash delivered by Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse in the third period to the lower left leg of Stars center Roope Hintz appeared to do the job of a mob hit. “We didn’t like it,” Stars center Jamie Benn said.