Panthers fans showed up in South Florida Tuesday night fired up to celebrate the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship.
The Oilers missed the memo.
Edmonton took control in the opening period then held off a Florida rally for a thrilling 5-3 Game 5 win in the Stanley Cup Final. Oilers superstar Connor McDavid tallied two goals and two assists in the win.
After trailing 3-0, the Oilers have reeled off consecutive wins to cut their series deficit to 3-2. The Stanley Cup Final now shifts back to Edmonton via a nearly six-hour flight where the Oilers will have a chance to tie the series in front of their home crowd.
Tuesday’s game started much like Saturday’s 8-1 Oilers win. After a chaotic opening sequence that produced five combined shots on goal in 94 seconds, the Panthers secured the game’s first edge with a power play less than five minutes in. But it was the Oilers who took advantage.
With the Panthers on power play, Oilers right winger Connor Brown stole a cross-ice pass near the Florida blue line and and broke free for a scoring chance with only goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky standing in his way.
Bobrovsky didn’t stand a chance. Brown deked him and snuck the puck past his right skate and into the net to open a 1-0 Edmonton lead.
On Saturday, Brown sparked Edmonton scoring barrage by corralling a loose puck and assisting on a shorthanded Mattias Janmark goal early in the first period.
That was the end of scoring in a first period that Edmonton dominated. The Oilers outshot the Panthers 10-6 and didn’t allow a Florida shot on goal in the final 14 minutes of the period.
The floodgates opened on both sides of the ice in a frantic second period that produced five goals.
Edmonton started the period with a 5-4 advantage after a late Florida penalty in the first. With two seconds left on the power play Zach Hyman a slap shot from near the blue line through traffic and past Bobrovsky to double the Oilers’ lead.
Three minutes later, McDavid slipped a wrist shot from the left side past Bobrovsky for a 3-0 lead that appeared to put the Oilers in full control.
But the Panthers weren’t done.
Two minutes later, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues came away with the puck from a scrum at the boards and found teammate Matthew Tkachuk clear of five Edmonton defenders who helplessly gave chase. Tkachuk then sent the puck past goaltender Stuart Skinner to sound the Amerant Bank Arena horn for the first time Tuesday night.
The Oilers answered five minutes later, this time on another bit of brilliance from McDavid. The Oilers All-Star skated end-to-end through and past four Florida defenders on a power play, then passed the puck behind him to a trailing Corey Perry, who wristed the puck into the net for a 4-1 Oilers lead.
Florida answered again 14 seconds later. This time Evan Rodrigues corralled a rebound of a Brandon Montour shot and wristed it into the net to cut the Edmonton lead to 4-2.
A Florida offense that was stagnant through Game 4 and the start of Game 5 had come alive. The Panthers got off the last 19 shots of the second period and carried that momentum into the start of the third.
They maintained control of the puck to start the third period and cut their deficit to 4-3 on an Oliver Ekman-Larsson one-timer from Tkachuk with 15:56 left.
A Florida home crowd that sat stunned midway through the second period came alive. What looked like another Edmonton blowout was suddenly a thriller.
But there would be no Stanley Cup celebration Tuesday night. The Panthers continued to control the puck for most of the final period, but their deficit proved to be too much. The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky with 2:31 remaining for a 6-5 advantage, but didn’t score again. Skinner continually turned back late Florida shots, and McDavid put the game away with and empty-net goal with 18 seconds remaining. The Oilers stay alive in their quest to rally from a 3-0 Stanley Cup deficit.
Game 6 is scheduled for Friday night.
