Edmonton Oilers players celebrate after defeating Dallas Stars in overtime at Rexall Place in Edmonton. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports


By Mike Heika/The Dallas Morning News


The Dallas Stars have a lot of good memories in this old barn, so they might as well have exited in exciting fashion Friday.
The Edmonton Oilers are in their last season at Rexall Place, and that means the Stars played their last game ever on the ice where they had six playoff series in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Dallas had a big edge in shots on goal, 43-24, but Edmonton goalie Anders Nilsson was up to the task and paved the way for a 2-1 overtime victory for the Oilers, who fans had to be happy with a win against one of their most frustrating rivals.
Jordan Eberle scored the winner on a nice wrister over Antti Niemi’s glove just 45 seconds into overtime, but Nilsson was the key.
“He made some great saves,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “The third period, we were really on top of it, we had five or six Grade A chances, and he made his share of great saves.”
Dallas had a 15-4 advantage in shots on goal in the third period, but Nilsson turned away Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza, Ales Hemsky, Tyler Seguin and more.
“Give that guy credit,” Spezza said. “We had good goal scorers who had good chances. We all had good looks.”
Dallas falls to 20-5-2 (42 points), still the best start in franchise history.
Nilsson was spectacular right off the hop. He faced Seguin’s shot and answered with a quick glove. He faced Benn on a breakaway off a nice pass from Valeri Nichushkin, and calmly kicked away a shot from the NHL’s leading goal-scorer. That kind of shooting gallery continued for Nilsson, who faced 52 shots October 13 against the Stars in losing a 4-1 game.
“He played really good against us in Dallas, and obviously, he stood on his head against us here again,” said Stars center Vernon Fiddler. “But we have to execute on our chances, but I thought it was a pretty good effort on back-to-back games after getting in late.”
The Stars played in Vancouver Thursday, so there was a challenge to create energy, but all said the Stars had plenty of jump and played a good game.
“I didn’t think we sat back at all, we took it to them,” Fiddler said. “It’s going to happen, we just have to get right back on the saddle the next game.”
The strong play of Nilsson allowed the Oilers to overcome a sluggish start and fight back against a Stars team that was flying. Taylor Hall made a spectacular play after the Oilers took advantage of a soft neutral zone clear by the Stars. Hall outmaneuvered Stars defenseman Patrik Nemeth for a puck as he entered the offensive zone. Hall, pulled the puck out of Nemeth’s skates, and flipped a shot over Antti Niemi for a 1-0 lead at the 14:49 mark of the first period.
The Oilers then made a nice push and forced Niemi into some big saves.
Mattias Janmark scored his fifth goal of the season late in the second period. Fiddler won a faceoff in the offensive zone, Jamie Oleksiak pushed the puck to the net, and Janmark fought to the front to muscle in a shot.
That made it 1-1 and ensured the league’s top scoring team would not be shut out _ they have been held to one goal just twice this season and have fired 40-plus shots on goal in both games.
Dallas now has lost to several of the lowest ranked teams in the league - Toronto twice, Colorado once, Calgary (in a shootout) once and Edmonton (in overtime) once. Still, they went 2-0-2 in a four-game road trip and now have three days before their next game.
“You can’t be disappointed with six out of eight points on the road trip,” Ruff said.
“We basically won three out of four. We got the points we needed.”