Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 60: McDavid has another four-point night as Oilers hold off Panthers’ rally to force Game 6

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Edmonton Oiler center Connor McDavid
Credit: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

After a dominant 8-1 win for the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4, they looked to continue their comeback from down 3-0 in the series and push the series back to Edmonton. But with the Florida Panthers being the home team again in Game 5, this was the best chance that they would get to end the series before Edmonton really got some momentum.

Florida started the game playing like they wanted to win the Stanley Cup tonight, maintaining a lot of the early pressure, and as a result, they were rewarded with the games first power play. But much like Game 4, their first power play didn’t go the way they intended. Connor Brown made a great play along the blueline to break up a pass and set himself up for a breakaway, and he deked around Sergei Bobrovsky to open the scoring.

For the second straight game, the Oilers had the 1-0 lead, and it was courtesy of a shorthanded goal. It gave the Oilers the momentum they needed, as while they didn’t score for the rest of the first period, they didn’t let Florida fire the puck on net for the rest of the period.

But the Oilers did score shortly into the second period. After starting the frame on a power play awarded to Edmonton at the end of the first, Zach Hyman deflected a shot from Evan Bouchard at the tail end of their man advantage for his first goal of the series to make the game 2-0.

And then just three minutes later, Connor McDavid took a bad angled shot that leaked through Bobrovsky to make it 3-0.

It was important for Florida that they didn’t let the game get away from them like it did in Game 4, and they needed a goal from a big name on their team. So who better to get the job done than Matthew Tkachuk, who’s had a quiet series. Evan Rodrigues set up Tkachuk for a mini-breakaway in the offensive zone, and he sniped it past Stuart Skinner to make it 3-1.

Five minutes later, McDavid responded again, this time with an impressive set of moves to set up Corey Perry with the easy tap-in to give the Oilers the three goal lead again.

But the Panthers clapped right back, as Brandon Montour threw the puck on net, and Rodrigues was there to bury the rebound and make it 4-2.

The Oilers seemed to slow things down for the rest of the second and keep their lead to two goals, but four minutes into the third period, Tkachuk set up Oliver Ekman-Larsson jumping up from the point and the Swede fired home a shot past Skinner to make it a one goal game.

The Panthers continued to pressure throughout the third to tie the game, but despite many great attempts to score, Skinner had the answer. And despite a couple of amazing plays to keep the puck out of the empty Florida net, McDavid capped off another excellent night with the empty net goal to make it 5-3.

With the 5-3 win, the Oilers creep closer to coming back from that 0-3 hole with the series now just 3-2 for the Panthers. Edmonton had a couple of big games from big players, with McDavid’s two goals and four points making him just the third player ever to have a 40-point playoff run, and Bouchard’s three assists giving him the most assists by a defenseman in a playoff run.

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