Miami (AFP) – The Edmonton Oilers held off a furious late rally to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-3 and keep their dreams of an improbable Stanley Cup Final comeback alive on Tuesday.
The Oilers, down 3-0 after the first three games of the best-of-seven series, built on the momentum from their 8-1 thrashing of Florida on Saturday to claim a hard-fought road win.
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The Oilers now have the chance to level the series with a victory on their home ice in Edmonton in game six on Friday.
Edmonton are bidding to become only the second team in ice hockey history to overturn a 3-0 series deficit to lift the Stanley Cup after Toronto achieved the feat in 1942.
Connor McDavid’s second goal of the night in the dying seconds sealed a pulsating victory for the Oilers, who are hoping to end Canada’s 31-year wait for a Stanley Cup champion.
“The guys dug deep, it’s not an easy building to win, but it was backs against the wall and we found a way to win,” McDavid said. “We believe in each other. We believe we can get through it and we can get through anything. We stuck together in there and it was an impressive showing from everybody.”
Connor Brown fired the short-handed Oilers into the lead after just 5min 30, snaffling possession near halfway during a Florida power play before coolly rounding Sergei Bobrovsky and tucking away the finish.
The Oilers doubled their lead early in the second period with a power-play goal. Evan Bouchard let rip with a long range slap shot which deflected off Zach Hyman’s leg and into the Florida net.
It got better for Edmonton after five minutes of the second period after McDavid’s superb individual goal made it 3-0. There appeared to be little on as McDavid picked up possession near the bottom of the circle. But somehow McDavid rifled a shot past Bobrovsky from an acute angle to leave the Oilers in total control.
Matthew Tkachuk finally got Florida on the board after 6:53 of the second period, lifting the puck into the top corner of the net after latching on to an assist from Evan Rodrigues.
Yet Edmonton restored their three-goal cushion at 11:54, with Corey Perry making it 4-1 with a power-play goal, tapping in from close range after a magnificent piece of skill from McDavid split Florida’s defense.
The Oilers barely had time to celebrate before Florida hit back, Rodrigues finding the net with a wrist shot to make it 4-2 just 14 seconds after Perry’s goal.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson then set up a grandstand finish to get Florida within one goal early in the third period, threading his snap shot into the net past Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.
However Edmonton held firm and McDavid’s second goal of the night, an empty-netter, ensured a game six on Friday.
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