SUNRISE, Fla. — Leon Draisaitl scored in extra time for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Sport 4 of the Stanley Cup Remaining on Thursday evening to tie the sequence, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing again after permitting the late tying purpose.
Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left within the third interval, earlier than Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to ship it to extra time. Three of the primary 4 video games of this ultimate have wanted further time to be settled, the primary time that has occurred since 2013 and fifth time in NHL historical past.
Draisaitl’s purpose 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of additional hockey between these groups — despatched the sequence again to Western Canada all even. Sport 5 of what is turning right into a traditional back-and-forth sequence between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday evening in Edmonton.
The Oilers grew to become the primary street crew to rally from down three to win a recreation within the ultimate because the Montreal Canadiens towards the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Solely six groups have come again from down three within the ultimate in NHL historical past, the final time in 2006.
Edmonton could be very a lot in it now, even after it regarded like it will be blown out of the sequence. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 within the first interval on a pair of objectives by Matthew Tkachuk and one other with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which might have been a back-breaker.
Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed these three objectives on 17 photographs within the first, when the ice was tilted towards him and his teammates didn’t have a lot of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who gained all six of his begins this playoffs earlier than getting injured.
Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the primary 18 photographs he confronted and paving the best way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first energy play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with one other shot up excessive and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with lower than 5 minutes left within the second.
With Draisaitl within the penalty field to begin the third, Oilers have been on their heels for a number of minutes and relied on Pickard to maintain the rating tied. He turned apart each shot he confronted till Walman fired the puck previous Bobrovsky to silence a overwhelming majority of the group and incite a roar out of the Edmonton followers amongst these in attendance together with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
Panthers followers had yet one more probability to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them once more.
With Hockey Corridor of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist additionally within the constructing, the Oilers made positive they’d not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 within the ultimate like they did final yr. They compelled Sport 7 then however in the end fell quick, with Florida successful the Cup for the primary time in franchise historical past.
Now every of those groups is a few victories away from being champions.