Draisaitl after Oilers' costly penalties: 'Gotta be an awful lot more mature'

The Edmonton Oilers gave up three power-play goals before the six-minute mark of the third period versus the Dallas Stars on Wednesday en route to a 6-3 Game 1 loss, and Leon Draisaitl wasn't impressed with his team's effort.

"It just kills the momentum," the superstar forward said. "Then you're chasing the game. The game changes from there. We gotta be an awful lot more mature than that."

"We gotta stay out of the box," Draisaitl added. "There's going to be penalties. We gotta come up with a kill. I'm not on (the penalty kill), so who am I to say anything, but that's just common sense, that's a fact. Once you have a chance to tie the game up on the power play, then it's our turn to be much better than that."

The Oilers controlled play through 40 minutes and held a 3-1 advantage entering the final frame. Dallas started the third on the power play, and Miro Heiskanen scored 32 seconds into the period. Oilers forwards Corey Perry and Evander Kane subsequently took high-sticking penalties, and the Stars converted on both power-play opportunities to take a lead they didn't surrender.

"It's a tough pill to swallow, for sure," said goaltender Stuart Skinner. "You just can't be doing that, especially playoff time, especially against a team like this. They know how to score goals, obviously. Mature team. I know we have that in us as well, and we've done it many, many times. Just let it slip for a little bit, and we'll get back at it, for sure."

The Oilers' penalty kill drops to 62.2% after Game 1. Edmonton is 22.6% worse than the next closest unit among the remaining teams in the conference finals.

"Whether it's a won battle, a clear, a block, whatever play's gotta be made on the PK, you gotta make it," said defenseman Darnell Nurse. "We didn't do that enough tonight."

Despite the loss, the Oilers owned 56% of the shot attempts and outchanced Dallas 26-17 at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. Nurse liked his team's game at even strength.

"Our five-on-five game, I thought, was really good," Nurse said. "For us, we gotta use it more. We know they have a good power play. In the last couple of series too, when we buckled down and stayed out of the box and kept the game at five-on-five, we played to the strength of our team."

Game 2 of the series is Friday in Dallas.