Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice on the power play and Stuart Skinner took a shutout late into the third period as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the top-seeded Dallas Stars, 3-1 to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference final on Friday night.

Philip Broberg had the other goal and Evan Bouchard had a pair of assists for the Oilers, who can advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since 2005-06 with a win at home in Game 6 on Sunday night.

Skinner was perfect until Wyatt Johnson’s goal with 5:51 remaining. He held the Stars scoreless the rest of the way to finish with 19 saves in his second straight win after losses in Games 2 and 3.

There hadn’t been a power-play goal by either team in this series until Nugent-Hopkins scored on a rebound 18 seconds after a penalty in the first period. He struck again just 16 seconds after the Stars took a penalty early in the second period for a 2-0 advantage.

Dallas was limited to six shots on goal halfway through the game and dropped to 4-6 at home this postseason. The Stars are 0 for 11 on the power play in this series.

Sam Reinhart recorded a hat trick and Aleksander Barkov had four assists to lead the visiting Florida Panthers to their season-high seventh straight victory, 8-4 over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist and Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and two assists for the Panthers, who have scored 31 goals – including 10 on the power play – during the win streak.

Reinhart has 10 goals in the seven-game run, including three multigoal games. He ranks among the NHL leaders with 28 goals this season, three fewer than he had in 82 games in 2022-23.

Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin each scored one goal and set up another as Colorado had a seven-game point streak snapped.

Nathan MacKinnon had an assist to extend his home point streak to 21 games to start the season.

Streaking Oilers win behind Hyman’s hat trick

Zach Hyman notched his third hat trick of the season and the Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to seven games on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Stuart Skinner stopped 30 shots and Evan Bouchard had three assists for Edmonton, which has overcome a 5-12-1 start by going 15-3-0 in their last 18.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch became the first coach in NHL history to have two seven-game winning streaks in his first 25 games in the position. 

The Senators got their lone goal from Parker Kelly and dropped their third straight.

Fleury ties Roy as Wild win

Marc-Andre Fleury tied Patrick Roy on the all-time wins list with Marco Rossi’s overtime goal that gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Fleury made 25 saves to match Roy with his 551st win and now trails only Martin Brodeur (691) on the career list.

Matt Boldy scored two power-play goals and Marcus Johansson also tallied for the Wild, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

Columbus’ Cole Sillinger scored all three goals for his second career hat trick.