On a night when Hudson Young scored a double for the Raiders, Strange was close to Canberra's best with a hand in three other tries in Saturday night's win.
Considered little chance of playing finals at the start of the year, the Raiders are now in the box seat to finish the round fourth with the season near the quarter-way point.
Hooker Tom Starling is in career-best form, as is second-rower Young as part of a left edge that is humming.
Joe Tapine was so damaging that Stuart labelled him the NRL's best prop after the win, while Kaeo Weekes had his best game of the season after a difficult few weeks.
Canberra completed at 93 per cent, but still a found a way to move the ball around while playing direct in the sauna-like TIO Stadium.
That all left the last-placed Eels no match for the Raiders, with the result saving four-time defending premier Penrith from falling to the bottom of the ladder.
But the most timely showing of all came from Strange, who has had a quiet start to the season after last year's brilliant rookie showing.
The 20-year-old scored his try when he ran onto a low kick from Jamal Fogarty in the first half, giving Canberra a 12-6 advantage.
Strange laid on another try when he burst through the middle, stepped to the right and helped create the defensive chaos for Matt Timoko to cut through and score.
The five-eighth then put the icing on the cake in the dying minutes, breaking down the left short side and offloading back for Seb Kris to score.
Strange and injured youngster Ethan Sanders are viewed as the Raiders' future halves, benefiting from Fogarty's experience.
Canberra coach Stuart is due to fly to meet with Fogarty's management on the Gold Coast this week to discuss Fogarty's future, with Manly known to be interested.
Stuart has made no secret of the fact he wants to keep Fogarty, but does fear he could lose the half given he is only willing to offer a one-year deal.
That outcome will shape Canberra's halves in coming seasons, with Stuart wanting to manage the transition to Strange and Sanders as a pairing.
"I want Jamal to bring through Ethan Sanders," Stuart said after the win.
"You can see what we're doing with Ethan Strange. I reckon Ethan Stange's game tonight was his best game for the club.
"It doesn't have to be the flashiest. You have a look at his hit-technique defensively, have a look at how powerful of a runner he is.
"He has a massive career ahead of him. And that is what I want to happen with Ethan Sanders."
Beyond Strange, the Raiders' best play of the night came when Weekes took a kick on his own tryline, beat a number of defenders and found winger Xavier Savage.
Savage then broke downfield into Parramatta's half, before Kris got through two defenders later in the set and offloaded for Young to touch down. Savage later scored when awarded a penalty try.
Tapine shone for Canberra, barging over for their first try and offloading to Matty Nicholson for another.
In comparison, Parramatta only briefly got back into the game at 24-12 after halftime,
But any hope of a comeback for the Eels was killed when Dylan Brown was penalised for taking Weekes out while waiting to field a kick, before a flurry of points went against them.
"There was plenty of effort early, but we made it too easy for a good footy team," Eels coach Jason Ryles said.
"We got what we deserved in the end."
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