Stats! They’re an inseparable part of any sport, but don’t always tell the full picture. Take the Edmonton Oilers vs. Dallas Stars Game 4 for example. While the scoreboard tells you it was a 4-1 win for the Oilers, it doesn’t mean they completely shut down the Stars. In fact, it was a close contest until the third period, with big saves and shots bouncing off posts. “Maybe we’re trying to shoot even too hard, trying too much maybe offensively,” said Mikko Rantanen.

But some stats do tell the bigger picture, and right now, one such number has cast a shadow over the Stars’ Stanley Cup dreams. After the Oilers beat the Stars in Game 4 of the Western Conference final, a worrying stat emerged for Dallas, courtesy of ESPN. “The Oilers haven’t lost a 3-1 series lead since 1989,” revealed a post by ESPN. Now, that’s 36 years of not losing a series where they lead 3-1. Yet, Dallas’ worries don’t end there.

As per the ESPN post, the Edmonton Oilers hold a 17-1 series-winning record when leading by two games. Meanwhile, the Stars have a 0-16 losing record when trailing a best-of-7 series by two games. However, this isn’t how their conference finals started. The Dallas Stars came into the finals after putting on multiple offensive clinics against the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets.

And it looked like their new Finnish Mafia with the addition of Miko Rantanen would avenge last year’s Western final loss against the Oilers. The Stars scored goals in Game 1, snatching away Edmonton’s 3-1 lead and scoring five times in the third period. “Oh yeah, you always think you figured it out and then you get humbled in a hurry,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. Who could’ve known just how poetic that line would turn out to be?

Just when the Dallas Stars thought they may have figured it out, the Edmonton Oilers hit back. Connor McDavid called their first loss “a one-off,” and it sure seems that way right now. But the Oilers haven’t been unscathed either.

Edmonton Oilers lose star player ahead of Game 5

Despite the 4-1 score indicating total dominance, Game 4 was filled with ups and downs for the Edmonton Oilers. They had to withstand a furious offensive push from the Stars early in the game. “We’re not coming in here and getting dominated the whole game, right?” said forward Jason Robertson. “We’re doing good things, and it’s not going in for us. We still have life,” he added. It’s true, the game was far from one-sided in the first period, with the Stars going 39-16 in shot attempts.

And things may get tricky for the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5, as they lost Zach Hyman midway through the very first period. The Oilers forward has been a crucial piece of the offensive puzzle. More than his 11 points (5 goals and 6 assists) in 15 games, he has made a name for himself in this year’s playoffs with the sheer physicality he seems to have brought to his game lately, hitting almost anything that moves. In the 15 games that she has played for the Oilers in this year’s postseason, he has recorded a massive 111 hits. If that number alone is not surprising enough, consider the fact that the same guy had just 59 hits in 73 regular-season games. Let that sink in. But the tables turned for him in Game 4 as a hit from the Stars’ Mason Marchment sent Hyman out of the game.

There is no update on Hyman’s injury yet, but needless to say, the Oilers will have to tread carefully, considering they haven’t been able to Mattias Ekholm back on the ice since April. Meanwhile, the injury sustained by Connor Brown in Game 3, thanks to a hit by Alexander Petrovic, forced a lineup change ahead of Game 4 with Viktor Arvidsson replacing the forward. So yes, while the Oilers may have a 3-1 lead and a whole lot of history on their side, more injuries could make things tricky. And if we are just talking stats, let’s not forget that while the Stars have a 2-6 record away from home, they are 7-2 at the American Airlines Center.