“For the first time, our new Finnish Mafia is at full strength,” the Dallas Stars posted on May 13 while they were in the middle of their Round 2 series against the Jets. Since then, the Stars’ Finnish Mafia has had great success on the ice. They helped Peter DeBoer’s Dallas knock out the best Canadian teams of the regular season and pull off an insane comeback against the Oilers in Game 1 of the Conference Final. However, the Stars went all in tonight.

Game 2 against the Edmonton Oilers didn’t just see Dallas use their Finnish firepower as part of the squad. The American NHL team’s hockey stars from Finland became the starting lineup for the team, creating history in the process. “For the first time since the @NHL began tracking starters, all five starting skaters are Finnish,” the Central Division team posted on X.

The image showed the five-man Finnish Dallas Stars team on the blue line. Among them were forwards Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, and their newest blockbuster signing Mikko Rantanen. Meanwhile, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen joined the trio to handle defensive duties. Dallas’ Finnish forwards have been especially potent in front of the net in the playoffs.

In fact, the Dallas Stars starting trio had scored a whopping 19 combined goals as of Game 2 of the Western Conference. Rantanen led the pack and the NHL for most playoff goals this season with 9 (so far), while Hintz and Granlund each had five goals to their name when they lined up for Game 2. “The Canadian representation is always close to my heart. But right now I’m Finnish,” Coach DeBoer joked. That wasn’t the only funny anecdote the coach shared ahead of their Conference Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.

“Peter DeBoer said it makes his job a little bit easier because they’re all speaking Finnish on the bench. He says he has no idea what they’re saying, but they’re probably talking about him,” revealed announcer David Amber before the game. Unfortunately, for the Dallas Stars, the all-Finnish lineup couldn’t get the results they were looking for.

Oilers silenced Dallas Stars’ Finnish firepower

Dallas definitely carried the momentum at Rogers Place after staging an epic comeback in Game 1. On May 22, the Stars turned the tables on the Oilers, wiping out their 2-goal lead and scoring five times in the third period to win the game 6-3. However, looking at the starting lineup made one thing clear: Dallas was the team that wanted to take an early lead in Game 2.

However, things turned out to be quite different. Despite the Dallas Stars’ forward trio sharing 19 goals between them, the Oilers’ defense shut them down. Stuart Skinner was also on top of his game, stopping everything that got past the defense. Meanwhile, the Oilers forwards once again took the early lead, scoring thrice in the first two periods, thanks to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor Brown, and Brett Kulak.

“I think we’ll respond and put in a good effort. I think there was a lot of positives from the other night, but there’s always room to get better,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch ahead of Game 2. Connor McDavid said the same thing. “This group has always responded to these types of situations pretty well, and I expect the same tomorrow night,” McDavid said Thursday. In Round 2, the Oilers recorded six straight comeback wins against the Vegas Golden Knights—an NHL record.

The Edmonton Oilers lived up to those words and then some. The 2024 Stanley Cup runner-ups didn’t just take the lead, but preserved it, stopping the Dallas Stars from mustering a response in the third period. Stuart Skinner, who had an awful start to the playoffs, came back with two series-clinching shutouts in Round 2, and then got slammed for his poor showing in Game 1 of the 3rd Round, stopped everything that the Stars fired at him as the Oilers blanked Pete DeBoer’s men.