Benched in favor of Calvin Pickard midway through the first round, he returned to the Edmonton Oilers’ net and shut the Golden Knights out in back-to-back games to eliminate Vegas with a 1-0 overtime win Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

Kasperi Kapanen jammed in a rebound on the goal line to win it for the Oilers seven minutes into OT.

The sudden-death tally gave Edmonton a 4-1 series win. The Oilers advance to the Western Conference final for the second straight season, and third time in the last four years, where they await the winner of the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars series.

Skinner has now stopped the last 48 shots he’s faced, and will take a 127-minute shutout streak into the conference final. Adin Hill stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced on Wednesday, but the one goal he let in ended Vegas’ season.

There weren’t many scoring chances in either direction through the first 60 minutes. The teams combined for 47 shots on goal and 13 high-danger chances in regulation.

Both defenses held strong, keeping the puck to the outside of the defensive zone and forcing shots to come from a distance. In net, both Skinner and Hill made easy work of the long shots, handling rebounds relatively well to avoid scramble situations in front of them.

The Oilers improved to 7-0 in close-out opportunities in games 5 or 6 in the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era. They knocked out the Los Angeles Kings last series with a 6-4 win in Game 6.

This is the fourth time the Golden Knights’ season has ended on an overtime goal. They were eliminated by sudden-death goals by Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen in 2021, the Stars’ Denis Gurianov in 2020 and San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow in 2019.

This is Vegas’ first time exiting in the second round of the playoffs in franchise history. The Golden Knights were a perfect 4-0 in the second round prior to this, losing in the first round twice and advancing to at least the conference final four times.

Skinner settling back into No. 1 role
With Pickard out of the picture for at least the near term – Collin Delia did third-string duties at the morning skate – the net clearly belongs to Skinner.

After an iffy first start in Game 3, culminating with that buzzer-beating game-winner by Reilly Smith, Skinner is back to looking like the goalie who closed out series with aplomb so often last year.

Skinner followed up a 23-save shutout in Game 4 by stopping all 24 shots he faced on Wednesday. Much like two nights earlier, Skinner wasn’t tested with a barrage of high-quality chances. He also got a little help when Brett Howden couldn’t tap in a beautiful feed from Jack Eichel in the third period.

Still, Skinner made the saves he needed to make. The Oilers should have more confidence in their last line of defense, a good thing since there’s little in the way of a safety net while Pickard remains sidelined.

McDavid’s point streak is snapped
McDavid has been doing McDavid things in these playoffs, producing offensively at his usual incredible rate. McDavid entered Wednesday’s game with 17 points in 10 contests and riding an eight-game point streak (two goals and 11 assists).

Well, that came to an end in Game 5 as McDavid was slowed as part of a mostly lethargic pace throughout the night.

There was some concern about McDavid when he went crashing heavily into the end boards while trying to break up a Golden Knights rush late in the first period. He sustained a cut above his lip and had a lengthy chat on the bench with head athletic therapist T.D. Forss but didn’t end up missing his next shift and wound up playing 23:50.

Oilers’ power play comes up short
The power play has been the Oilers’ bread and butter for so long, but it’s been inconsistent in the playoffs and downright nonexistent on the road.

The struggles continued on Wednesday as the Oilers failed to score on their two chances, falling to 0-for-14 away from Edmonton. They had the first two opportunities of the game and generated little with a pair of bad-angle shots by Draisaitl representing their best of the four they got on net.

At least the Oilers did buck a trend when it came to special teams. It was the first time in the playoffs that they’ve had more power plays than their opponent. This was their 11th game.

Vegas ends with lengthy scoreless streak
The Golden Knights’ season ended on an unbelievable goalless drought of 127:14, failing to score on Skinner in either of the final two games.

The game featured very few scoring opportunities, and early on the Golden Knights struggled to hit the net on the few chances they did generate. It’s been a storyline since Game 1, when Vegas hit the net on its fewest percentage of unblocked shots in franchise history, and didn’t improve much as the series progressed.

On Wednesday, the Golden Knights were on target with only 24 of 64 shot attempts. They had only 13 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes of hockey. William Karlsson and Reilly Smith were both held without a single shot on goal. Pavel Dorofeyev led the way for Vegas with five shots, while Jack Eichel had three.

Vegas missed its captain dearly
The Golden Knights just aren’t the same team when Mark Stone isn’t on the ice, or the bench. It’s felt that way for six years now.

Not only are Stone’s defensive acumen and playmaking ability missed, his raw emotion and leadership are invaluable for this team, and that was obvious again on Wednesday. Despite facing elimination, Vegas just didn’t seem to have much of a push until well into the third period, when the offensive attack picked up considerably.

Nicolas Roy did an admirable job filling in for Stone on the wing. He was the Golden Knights’ best player for most of the night, winning board battles, buzzing through the neutral zone with speed and hanging onto possession to extend plays in the offensive zone.

He wasn’t able to replicate Stone’s passing ability from below the goal line on Vegas’ lone power play, but few can. Vegas’ power play, which has been a major advantage all season and was early in this postseason, went scoreless on its last six opportunities.