Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 63: Oilers become first team to force Game 7 after trailing 3-0 in the Cup Final since 1945

The Edmonton Oilers have managed to keep this Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers for two more games after going down 3-0. Will they tie up the series in Game 6 with a win on home ice, or would the Panthers finally seal the deal and win the Cup?

A lot of the talk going into the series was the play of Leon Draisaitl, and how he hadn’t really had a big game to help the Oilers in the Final. He seemed to make his first big play of the series by setting up Warren Foegele for the opening goal.

That was the only action in the first outside of a couple of close plays and some big hits. But in the second period, the action started right away. First, Mattias Ekholm set up a 2-on-1 for the Oilers in the first minute of the game, and Mattias Janmark found Adam Henrique for the one-timer to make it 2-0.

The Panthers thought they got one goal back only 10 seconds later with a goal from Aleksander Barkov, but after a video review, it was determined to be offside, and the Oilers still had a 2-0 lead.

The Panthers pressured after that, still really desperate to get back in this game, but Stuart Skinner stood tall to keep the score at 2-0, not wanting to make a mistake again. And the Oilers were rewarded late in the second period with another goal, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins blocked a shot and the puck bounced up the ice where Zach Hyman was the first to the puck and beat Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 3-0.

Barkov scored for real this time just 1:28 into the third period to give the Oilers a scare and start a comeback. They pressed to keep scoring and get the game tied, but they couldn’t get another goal past Skinner, and Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse got empty net goals to secure the win at 5-1, and tie the series 3-3 after being down 3-0 in the series. Foegele was the lone player to get two points with a goal and an assist, while Skinner stopped 20 of the 21 shots that he faced in the win.