How the Oilers won Game 6 vs. Panthers, putting them on the brink of a historic Stanley Cup comeback: 5 takeaways

EDMONTON – Thousands of fans dressed in orange and blue were partying in Rogers Place and the streets of Alberta’s capital Friday night.

After almost everyone outside their dressing room counted them out when they lost 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Edmonton Oilers did the impossible by forcing a Game 7 on Monday with a 5-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. Work done. ,

For a team that was tied for last place in the 32-team NHL on Nov. 9 and fell in previous playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars, that’s almost fair.

The Oilers are only the third team in NHL history to win three games while facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Finals. The others were the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1945 Detroit Red Wings. The 1942 Leafs are the only team in NHL history to come back from down 3–0 and win the Stanley Cup.

As yet.

“The job’s not done,” said Zach Hyman, who scored the game’s breakaway goal. “It’s a great story but you have to end it. If we don’t complete it, everyone will forget. This is the key. It’s great to give them a moment like this, but I think they’re waiting for a bigger moment.”

It was a dominant performance from start to finish on Friday, with the Oilers allowing two shots on goal in the first period and zero to the Panthers forwards for more than half of the game.

Warren Foegele and Adam Heinrich also scored for the Oilers, and Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse added empty netters. Hyman now leads all scorers this postseason with 16 goals. Add in his regular season totals, and he has 70 goals during this tremendous 2023-24 campaign.

Alexander Barkov, who had a goal off the board early in the first period when Sam Reinhart was ruled offside after a challenge from the coach, scored a highlight-reel goal in the third period to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead. Turned it back.

Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 19 of 20 shots – and picked up an assist on Nurse’s goal – while Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 of 19 shots.

Edmonton’s 18 goals put it one goal short of elimination in this Stanley Cup Final 1942 maple leaves (19) Most in NHL history.

They have all the momentum going into Game 7.

Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said, “It’s been a hell of a story so far, but at the end of the day, we play to win, and this is going to be the toughest game for us.” “They are going to come out hard. They are going to play at home. We have to bring our game back. I’m really proud of the way we gave ourselves the opportunity. thats what its all about.

“By no means will it be easy, a walk in the park. This is going to be the toughest game of the series. we know that. We are aware of this. But with that being said, we’re really proud of ourselves for giving ourselves a chance.”

Here are five takeaways from how the Oilers did it, putting them on the brink of history.

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Oilers dominate first

Rogers Place was buzzing before the game, and fans had plenty of reason to bring the electricity during the first period as the Oilers dominated nearly every second of the game. They defeated the Panthers 11–2, missing a shot on their one penalty kill. Florida’s only shot overall came from veteran third-pair defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The Oilers took a 1–0 lead for the third consecutive game on Foegele’s goal when Aaron Ekblad, who had been playing brilliantly throughout the series, split and slumped. Foegele also fell to the ice, but quickly got up and received a pass from Draisaitl for a back-door one-timer, the forward’s third goal in 21 games.

But to dominate like the Panthers did before and only trail by one goal had to feel like a victory. Bobrowski kept Florida in a game it had no right to be in.

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Barkov’s goal is off the board

Just 10 seconds after Henrique scored in the opening minute of the second period to give Edmonton a 2–0 lead, the Panthers got a big goal from Barkov after a strong zone entry from Carter Verhaeghe, who remained surprisingly calm. Chain. But the Oilers’ Chris Knoblauch issued the first coaches’ challenge of the series, arguing that Reinhart was offside because Verhaeghe had gone to the blue line.

After a lengthy review, the linesmen in conjunction with the NHL situation room in Toronto ruled that Reinhart was actually over the line by millimeters. The goal was wiped off the board and the deficit cut in half was once again two goals.

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To say the least, Panthers coach Paul Morrissey was not happy.

Morris indicated that the Oilers’ approach may have been different from his.

“I have no idea (whether officials got it right),” Morris said. “It might have been offside. The linesperson informed me that this was the last clip they got where they made the decision which shows it is the reverse. I don’t have them. Based on what I see on my feet after the call, my video person was upset. If it was overturned there would be no way for me to challenge it.

“I thought there was no way you could say conclusively that it was counterproductive. I don’t know what the Oilers get (the replay angle). I don’t know what the league gets. All I know is that I would not have challenged him based on what I saw.

“I am not saying it is not offside. We’ll still get the frames. We will bring in the CIA. we’ll figure it out. But the 30 seconds I would have had to make that call, I would not have challenged.”

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It must have felt like a mountain to summit again for Florida.

Barkov would eventually score a sensational goal in the third.

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Another Knoblauch lineup change works wonders

Foegele was elevated to the fourth line to play alongside Connor McDavid and Hyman for Games 4 and 5, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was demoted down to skate with Draisaitl and Dylan Holloway. Looking at the results of those two competitions, it’s hard to argue with the move.

However, despite the success, Knoblauch opted to tinker with the top two lines before Game 6, sidelining Foegele and Nugent-Hopkins. Their change paid off – and quickly.

Foegele finished off Draisaitl’s pass on an odd-man rush 7:27 into the game for his third goal of the playoffs. That assist gave Draisaitl his third point of the series, following his two assists in Game 4. Unhappy with his performance, Draisaitl said in the morning that he was “excited to get into the series,” and he certainly did.

The Draisaitl–Fogele connection was the latest example of the Knoblauch transformation being implemented. Most of the coach’s decisions turned out to be gold, handling Skinner in the Vancouver Canucks series, moving Holloway into the lineup and making three changes before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.

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hail the penalty kill

Where would the Oilers be in these playoffs without his handyman? The superstars, namely McDavid, get most of the spotlight, but without the penalty kill Edmonton wouldn’t be one win away from a Stanley Cup title.

The Oilers thwarted three of the Panthers’ power plays and have now killed 46 of their last 47 penalties, including 21 straight at home.

but that’s not all. He also has two short-handed goals in the Cup final as the Panthers beat the Panthers 2-1 off a skater. This is the second consecutive series in which he has done so. Mattias Janmark recorded his first of two post-season shutouts in the Western Conference Finals, allowing the Oilers PK to best the Dallas Stars PP 1–0.

“To get to this point, we’ve had to change our mindset on defense and a big part of that is the penalty kill,” Hyman said. “The penalty kill has been phenomenal, probably more than anyone thought.”

Hyman scored 54 goals during the regular season, becoming one of the best stories of the 2023–24 campaign. Given his age and where he was drafted, he was one of the most unexpected 50-goal scorers in NHL history.

He hasn’t slowed down one bit in the postseason.

Hyman scored his second goal of the Stanley Cup Finals at 18:20 of the second period. He stepped up to catch the puck, which was intercepted by Nugent-Hopkins, deflected off Ekblad, dodged a diving Gustav Forsling and backhanded a shot past Bobrovsky.

Hyman had a league-leading 16th goal in the postseason. The only players to set that many records in a single playoff game in the past 30 years are Joe Sakic (18 for the Colorado Avalanche in 1996) and Pavel Bure (16 for Vancouver in 1994). This left him three behind Reggie Leach (Philadelphia Flyers, 1975) and Jari Kurri (Edmonton, 1985) in terms of all-time accomplishments.

The marker was also Hyman’s 70th in 2023–24 (regular season and playoffs), tying him with Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot.

With 72 last season (64 regular season and eight playoffs), McDavid is the only active player with more in a single campaign.

“It’s impressive,” Draisaitl said of Hyman. “He’s a heckuva hockey player. very unique. He is like a little bull. He jumps through the gate like no one else can. His first two steps are very powerful, and I think you could really see it on goal today. He just burst out there and he went, and he was cool, calm and collected in front of the net. Just know where to go. Really smart hockey player.”

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(Photo: Jeff Winnick/Getty Images)