Panthers See Another Chance At Cup Slip Away, Fall To Oilers 5-3 In Game 5

SUNRISE, Florida – Matthew Tkachuk ran off at full speed from around center ice, chasing a puck over his head and was headed straight for an empty net.

He dived. He stretched out his stick. He swatted and barely knocked the puck away, keeping the Florida Panthers’ chances of forcing extra alive. The problem was that the next player to get to the puck was Connor McDavid, who scored to seal the game.

This was how the Panthers’ Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final played out. Even when they did well, it needed to be better. Another lengthy travel to Alberta awaits, and this title series is quickly looking very tight.

Panthers | AP News Image

Panthers See Another Chance At Cup Slip Away, Fall To Oilers 5-3 In Game 5

The Panthers allowed two power-play goals and a shorthanded goal, fell behind 3-0 before rallying, and lost 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the championship series on Tuesday night. It was Florida’s second consecutive loss in a Cup game, following an 8-1 defeat in Edmonton the previous weekend.

Game 6 takes place on Friday night.

“I am not pumping tyres. I’m not stroking backs. “I don’t think we need that at all,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice stated. “Everybody probably feels the same way I do right now. I’m not feeling down. Neither is the hockey squad. They’re not feeling down. “A little grumpy.”

A lot cranky.

“We’re going to turn the page,” said forward Evan Rodrigues. “We’re going to learn from this one.”

Florida’s Rodrigues and Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, while the Panthers’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for Florida, extending the franchise’s 30-year wait for its first Stanley Cup triumph by at least three days.

“We get another shot at it on Friday,” Tkachuk explained.

McDavid scored two goals and two assists in the Stanley Cup Final, becoming the first player in NHL history to have back-to-back four-point games, while Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard scored three assists. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, and Corey Perry scored for the Oilers, while Stuart Skinner stopped 29 shots.

McDavid stated that it was a total team effort. It was, but it was also another heroic effort from McDavid, the game’s top player who is breaking new ground in the series.

McDavid has 42 points in the playoffs, which is the fourth-highest total in NHL history. The only guys ahead of him are the ones everyone expects: Wayne Gretzky scored 47 points in 1985, Mario Lemieux had 44 in 1991, and Gretzky had 43 in 1988.

McDavid will have at least one — and ideally two — games to add to his total. If there is a Game 7, it will take place in Sunrise on Monday night.

“Anytime you’re in the same realm as those two, it’s always a good thing,” McDavid stated.

It was the first time in Panthers history that they played a home game with the opportunity to win the Cup. Another sellout crowd arrived, with some buying more than $1,000 each for tickets on the secondary market – boosting Florida’s total attendance for the season beyond 1 million for the first time.

They arrived to view the trophy.

The Oilers wouldn’t let that happen. When it was finished, Tkachuk was asked if the Panthers felt any pressure.

“No. No. “No,” Tkachuk replied. “This isn’t an elimination game for us. We’re heading up there with a 3-2 series lead; we just need to take care of business like we did in Game 3.”

Panthers | AP News Image

Panthers See Another Chance At Cup Slip Away, Fall To Oilers 5-3 In Game 5

Edmonton entered the night having scored 10 of the series’ last 11 goals, including a 2-0 third period in Game 3 and an 8-1 rout in Game 4.

And the Oilers continued where they left off, with an amazing masterclass in special-teams play.

Game 5 began in the same way as Game 4, with Edmonton scoring on a shorthanded opportunity. Brown assisted on Saturday night, but he scored unassisted in this one, and the Oilers were on their way. Florida committed a penalty (interference by Niko Mikkola) as time expired in the first, which proved costly.

With two seconds left in the second period’s first power play, Hyman made it 2-0, and McDavid extended Edmonton’s advantage to 3-0 three minutes later from an extremely difficult angle.

For over two decades, the three-goal lead has proved unassailable in the Stanley Cup Final; no team has fallen after leading by three in a title-series game since Edmonton defeated Carolina in 2006. Since then, every squad has gone 39-0 in similar contests.

Panthers | AP News image

Panthers See Another Chance At Cup Slip Away, Fall To Oilers 5-3 In Game 5

Make it 40–0. But the Panthers made things interesting.

By the end of the second period, it was 4-2, with Tkachuk and Rodrigues sandwiching goals around Perry’s first playoff goal, which was set up by a great feed from McDavid. Ekman-Larsson scored early in the third period, but the equalizer never arrived.

“Never want to put yourself behind the 8-ball,” Rodrigues remarked. “We need to win one game.” Simple as that. Go up there and win one game. That is our mindset. That is exactly what we are going to do.

SOURCE – (AP)