Stanley Cup Final: Panthers fumble chance to sweep, Oilers dominate to force Game 5
EDMONTON — The Stanley Cup was in the building on Saturday night, but the Florida Panthers did not seem to be.
Florida fell flat on its face looking for a sweep, dropping Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final 8-1 to breathe some life back into the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers will have to wait until Tuesday for another chance to lift the Cup for the first time in franchise history, this time in front of their home fans for Game 5.
The Oilers blitzed the Panthers early, scoring three goals in the first period with contributions from three different lines. Mattias Janmark struck shorthanded 3:11 into the game, then Adam Henrique added one off the rush 7:48 in. Vladimir Tarasenko got Florida on the board 11:26 in before Dylan Holloway cashed in three minutes later to dash Florida’s hopes.
“This was the first opportunity, as a franchise, to feel the excitement and the emotion of the past two days,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ll learn how to channel that, and that’s all part of this process.”
Edmonton scored two goals in the first five minutes of the second period, and Connor McDavid had a hand in both. He first blitzed past the Florida defense and scored a goal off the rush before setting Darnell Nurse up with a no-look drop pass 4:49 into the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky was taken out of the game for Anthony Stolarz at that point after giving up five goals on 16 shots.
“Not a lot of silver linings here, people,” Mauirce said. “Bob got some rest. We’ll take that.”
After being held off the board on the power play for the first three games, the Oilers finally got one past the Panthers in Game 4. They got an opportunity at 5-on-3 and cashed in when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins buried the rebound of a Leon Draisaitl one-timer that dinged the crossbar.
The Oilers picked up two more goals in the third period from Holloway and Ryan McLeod.
”We obviously either win or we learn, and I think we will learn a lot from this game,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We know they’re a really good team and they played really well today. Obviously, we need to learn from that.”
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Here are three takeaways from Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final:
Panthers play too loose, get scorched by the Oilers off the rush
On Saturday morning, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said there is two versions of his team during closeout games. The one that has closed out six series in the past two seasons with a suffocating defensive style and the one that has dropped two games after getting too loose. The second one was the one that showed up.
They left their game a little too wide open, allowing the Oilers to attack off the rush early and it cost them dearly. They were looking for the kill shot on the power play early and once a mistake turned into a goal off the rush, the momentum swung back Edmonton’s way immediately.
”They played really, really well,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “They were flying, they were making really good plays off the rush and that’s probably the best part of their game. They scored a bunch of rush goals and we didn’t defend well on the rush.”
Stuart Skinner swung tide for the Oilers
The Panthers had a golden opportunity to get back within a goal late in the first period. Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe had a 2-on-1 opportunity with 7:52 to go in the first period and Stuart Skinner flashed the leather to shut down any possible momentum swing for Florida.
He sprawled out, tracked the cross-crease feed and robbed Verhaeghe with an incredible glove save.
Skinner finished the game strong, stopping 32 of 33 shots.
Connor McDavid officially makes his presence known in series
After being held without a goal in the first three games of the series, McDavid scored a goal and two assists while setting the NHL record for most assists in a playoff run (31).
McDavid took advantage of a Panthers team that was looser on its gasps and burst right past them time after time to create chances for Edmonton. It was how the Panthers collapsed so easily against an Oilers team with a ton of firepower.
“They will have no part of my day tomorrow,” Maurice said. “I’m not counting the 5-on-3, so yeah, they are very good players and they scored and they will get confidence from that. They will feel good. And then the puck’s gonna drop. I’m not going to say they’re not going to feel good, but the puck drops and everything changes, so we’re going to rally, recoup, recover, move forward and get ready. We’ll take 3-1 going home.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Stanley Cup Final: Oilers pound Panthers to force Game 5
