Stanley Cup Final: Leon Draisaitl lifts Oilers to Game 4 win
SUNRISE, Fla. — Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing back after allowing the late tying goal.
Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left in the third period, before Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to send it to overtime. Three of the first four games of this final have needed extra time to be settled, the first time that has happened since 2013 and fifth time in NHL history.
Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams — sent the series back to Western Canada all even. Game 5 of what’s turning into a classic back-and-forth series between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday night in Edmonton.
The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006.
Edmonton is very much in it now, even after it looked like it would be blown out of the series. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a back-breaker.
Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured.
Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the first 18 shots he faced and paving the way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first power play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with another shot up high and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with less than five minutes left in the second.
With Draisaitl in the penalty box to start the third, Oilers were on their heels for several minutes and relied on Pickard to keep the score tied. He turned aside every shot he faced until Walman fired the puck past Bobrovsky to silence a vast majority of the crowd and incite a roar out of the Edmonton fans among those in attendance along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
Panthers fans had one more chance to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them again.
With Hockey Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist also in the building, the Oilers made sure they would not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 in the final like they did last year. They forced Game 7 then but ultimately fell short, with Florida winning the Cup for the first time in franchise history.
Now each of these teams is a couple of victories away from being champions.
