The Edmonton Oilers are dragging the Stanley Cup final back to Alberta with 5-3 Game 5 win over the Florida Panthers.
Connor McDavid once again took charge for the Oilers.
The captain scored two goals and added two assists and Edmonton avoided elimination for a second straight game in the Stanley Cup final on Tuesday.
McDavid collected three goals and eight points in two games, at a time when his team absolutely had to win.
Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry also scored for the Oilers, who forced a Game 6 Friday in Alberta after conceding victories in the first three games.
Stuart Skinner made 29 saves in front of the net for the Alberta club, whose last conquest of the Stanley Cup dates back to 1990.
The Oilers are also seeking to become the first Canadian team to lift the silver bowl since the Montreal Canadiens, in 1993.
Defender Evan Bouchard totaled three assists for the victorious clan.
The Panthers attempted a comeback in the second and third periods but failed to tie the game. Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues and Oliver Ekman-Larsson threaded the needle.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 pucks for the Panthers, who are trying to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in their history.
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The Oilers gave themselves a two-goal lead by scoring on the penalty kill and on the power play during the first 22 minutes of the game.
Brown opened the scoring with his second goal of the playoffs at 5:30 of the first period on an individual effort while teammate Brett Kulak was in the penalty box.
Brown blocked a pass before recovering the puck in the neutral zone. Coming with speed into the offensive zone, the 30-year-old right winger found the back of the net with a backhand shot that Bobrovsky touched with the tip of his skate.
Hyman then doubled the visitors’ lead when Evan Bouchard’s point shot deflected off his knee at 1:58 of the second period. It was the scorer’s 15th goal since the start of the series.
Warren Foegele’s efforts to recover the puck in the corner of the Panthers’ zone paid off as McDavid flashed the red light at 5:00 of the period. He surprised Bobrovsky with a shot from a tight angle.
It was McDavid’s 40th point since the start of the playoffs. Only Wayne Gretzky (three times) and Mario Lemieux have reached this plateau in a single playoff run.
Tkachuk then made sure to keep the fans gathered at the Amerant Bank Arena involved by closing the gap just 1:53 later. Rodrigues forced the Oilers to commit a turnover, then Tkachuk fooled Skinner with a shot into the upper right corner of the net.
Perry gave the Oilers a three-goal lead again at 11:54 when McDavid broke through to the goaltender on the power play before feeding the puck back to him at the mouth of the net. It was his first of the playoffs. Rodrigues, however, responded just 14 seconds later.
Ekman-Larsson cut the lead to one goal at 4:04 of the third period with a powerful shot from the faceoff circle following a pass from Tkachuk.
McDavid, however, put the finishing touch with a goal in an empty net 18 seconds from the end.
The Panthers entered Tuesday night’s game with a 3-1 series lead and are playing for a chance to win a Stanley Cup on home ice for the first time in the franchise’s 30-year history.
However Edmonton has dominated play through a good portion of the series, and was finally rewarded with an 8-1 win in Game 4 on Saturday.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
