Panthers fans showed up in South Florida on Tuesday night excited to celebrate the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship.
The Oilers missed the memo.
Edmonton took control in the opening period and then held off a Florida rally for a thrilling 5-3 victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Oilers superstar Connor McDavid had two goals and two assists in the win.
Oilers keep betting on NHL history
After trailing 3-0, the Oilers rattled off back-to-back wins to cut the series deficit to 3-2. The Stanley Cup Final returns to Edmonton via a flight lasting almost six hours where the Oilers will have a chance to tie the series in front of their home fans.
Only four teams have recovered from a 3-0 playoff deficit to win an NHL playoff series. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs are the only team to do so in the Stanley Cup Final.
Edmonton starts with another shorthanded goal
Tuesday’s game began like the Oilers’ 8-1 victory on Saturday. After a chaotic opening sequence that produced a combined five shots on goal in 94 seconds, the Panthers secured their first lead of the game on a power play less than five minutes later.
With the Panthers on the power play, Oilers right wing Connor Brown stole a cross-court pass near the Florida blue line and broke free for a scoring chance, with only goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in his path.
Bobrovsky didn’t stand a chance. Brown took him down and got the puck past his right skate and into the net to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.
On Saturday, Brown unleashed Edmonton’s scoring barrage corralling a loose puck and assisting on a shorthanded goal by Mattias Janmark in the first period. The Oilers became the fourth team to score multiple shorthanded goals in the Stanley Cup Final in the last 30 years.
Brown’s goal marked the end of a first period dominated by Edmonton. The Oilers outscored the Panthers 10-6 and did not allow a shot on goal by Florida over the final 14 minutes of the period.
Chaos reigns in the second half
The floodgates opened on both sides of the ice in a frantic second period that produced five goals.
Edmonton began the period with a 5-4 lead after a late Florida penalty in the first. With two seconds left on the power play, Zach Hyman hit a shot near the blue line through traffic and past Bobrovsky to double the Oilers’ lead.
Three minutes later, McDavid hit a shot from the left side past Bobrovsky for a 3-0 lead that seemed to put the Oilers in complete control.
But the Panthers weren’t done.
Two minutes later, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues came up with the puck from a scramble on the sidelines and found teammate Matthew Tkachuk away from five Edmonton defenders who chased him helplessly. Tkachuk then sent the puck past goaltender Stuart Skinner to sound the Amerant Bank Arena horn for the first time on Tuesday night.
McDavid does it again
The Oilers responded five minutes later, this time with yet another brilliance from McDavid. The Oilers All-Star skated from end to end and past four defenders on a power play, then passed the puck to Corey Perry, who slotted it into the net for a 4-1 Oilers lead.
Florida responded 14 seconds later. This time, Rodrigues recovered a rebound of a Brandon Montour shot and found the net to cut Edmonton’s lead to 4-2.
A Florida offense that was stagnant during Game 4 and the start of Game 5 came to life. The Panthers made the last 19 shots of the second period and carried that momentum into the start of the third.
They maintained control of the puck early in the third period and cut the deficit to 4-3 on an Oliver Ekman-Larsson goal from Tkachuk with 15:56 left.
The Florida fans, who were stunned midway through the second period, were collectively on their feet. What appeared to be another explosion in Edmonton suddenly became a thriller with the Stanley Cup on the line.
Florida rally a little too late
But there would be no Stanley Cup celebration on Tuesday night. The Panthers continued to control the puck for most of the final period, but their deficit proved to be too much.
Florida pulled Bobrovsky with 2:31 left for a 6-5 lead but did not score again. Skinner repeatedly countered Florida’s late shots, and McDavid ended the game with an empty-net goal with 18 seconds remaining. The Oilers remain alive in their quest to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final.
In a game controlled by the Oilers in the first 30 minutes, the Panther finished with a 32-24 advantage in shots on goal. They secured a 37-25 edge in faceoffs won. But McDavid and Edmonton’s power play proved too much to overcome.
The Oilers scored on two of their five power play opportunities, while the Panthers came up empty and gave up a shorthanded goal on three. Meanwhile, Skinner excelled in the closing stages under a constant shooting attack from the Panthers. He finished the game with 29 saves and three goals allowed.
Bobrovsky countered with 19 saves and four goals allowed per game after allowing five goals on 16 shots before being pulled. Bobrovsky was excellent during the playoffs and frustrated the Oilers in the first two games of the series. With McDavid on the rise, the Panthers will count on Bobrovsky to find his previous form to prevent the Oilers from extending the series to seven games.
Game 6 is scheduled for Friday night.
