EDMONTON, Alberta — With Connor McDavid held scoreless, Leon Draiseitel and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers’ top players stepped up to move them within one win of the Stanley Cup.
Draisaitl made his first big impact in the finals with an assist on Warren Vogel’s early goal, and Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman scored in the second period as the Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 6 on Friday night to force a Game 7.
“At the end of the day, we’re playing to win and this is going to be our toughest game,” Draisaitl said. “We’ve got to play our game again.”
The Oilers are just the third team to surrender a 3-0 series lead to a tie in the finals and the first since the Detroit Red Wings in 1945. On Monday night in Sunrise, Fla., the Oilers will have a chance to become the only NHL team to come back from behind in that game to hoist the Stanley Cup, joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We had unwavering belief,” Hyman said. “No matter what happened throughout the year, we believed we would get through it. No matter how tough the situation is, I think we have a chance. A long season of facing adversity has prepared us. This next one will be the toughest one yet. To do it in front of this crowd is an incredible feeling. Now we have a chance to win. This is our first chance to win.”
After losing three straight games in the series, the Oilers bounced back by scoring five or more goals in three straight games, their longest winning streak in the Stanley Cup Finals since the Pittsburgh Penguins did it in 1991, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
The only chance they have to make hockey history and end Canada’s 30-year Cup drought is through McDavid’s heroics, helping pull the Oilers out of the woods with four points each in Games 4 and 5. It marked the first time in McDavid’s nine-year career that the Oilers won without him scoring a point or putting a shot on net.
Draisaitl, a longtime teammate from Germany who is the reigning league MVP and considered one of the best players in the world, was largely ineffective against the Panthers but provided a spark in Game 5.
“He’s a horse,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “He always comes on in the big moments. If you look at what he’s done in the playoffs, he’s one of the best players of all time.”
Draisaitl got the puck at center ice, weaved through a Florida defender and tapped the puck on the tape of Voegele’s stick for a tap-in that Sergei Bobrovsky had little hope of stopping. Of course, that didn’t stop the sellout crowd of more than 18,000 from derisively chanting, “Sergei! Sergei!”
But the goalie everyone calls “Bob” bears little blame. Even the mistakes in front of him contributed to a 2-on-1 rush, when Henrique beat Bobrovsky on a perfect pass from Mattias Janmark. The Panthers looked nervous and timid in front of their goalie, a far cry from the powerhouse team that reached the finals for the second straight year and came within a whisker of winning its first three games to win its first title in franchise history.
“We’re one game away from winning,” Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov said. “We were prepared for a seven-game series from the beginning, and now nothing’s changed. We were up three games and they played well in all three games. Now it’s just a matter of winning at home.”
Florida had just six shots on goal by the middle of the game and 21 by the end of the game. Continuing the Oilers’ trend of being there when they needed it most, goaltender Stuart Skinner made some timely saves to deny the Panthers, allowing just one goal to Aleksander Barkov less than 90 seconds into the third period.
“When we needed him he did a great job,” Janmark said of Skinner.
Ten seconds after Henrique’s goal, Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch successfully argued for offside when Barkov got the puck for the first time, and the goal was allowed to stand. A lengthy review revealed that Sam Reinhart had entered the offensive zone an inch or less in front of the puck, and the announcement was followed by cheers from the fans.
“I actually didn’t think it was that close,” Knobloch said. “It was definitely offside in my opinion.”
It wasn’t the loudest noise ever recorded at Rogers Place, but there were plenty of deserving contenders for the honor: When the Oilers took to the ice to the tune of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the decibel meter displayed on the video screen reached 113.8.
The noise level may have approached that level when Ryan McLeod and Nurse found the back of the net in the final seconds of the game, setting off chants of “We want the cup!”, “We want the cup!” and wild celebrations from the viewing party outside.
Hours before kickoff, downtown was a sea of blue and orange. Friday was just another day off in Edmonton, a city home to nearly a million people who could dream of the Oilers hoisting another white flag to the rafters, but in the most unlikely of ways.
“I’m excited for the season to continue,” McDavid said. “It’s all about taking it one game at a time, one day at a time. I’m looking forward to the next game.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
