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Goalie change sparks Oilers epic 5-4 OT win in Game 4 of Stanley Cup Final vs. Panthers: takeaways
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- Goalie change sparks Oilers epic 5-4 OT win in Game 4 of Stanley Cup Final vs. Panthers: takeaways
Leon Draisaitl capped a historic comeback by the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers on Thursday, when he scored a fortuitous goal at 11:18 of overtime to lift the visitors to a thrilling 5-4 victory
The Oilers evened the best-of-7 series 2-2 after rallying from an early 3-0 deficit, the first time in Stanley Cup Final history that a team won when trailing by three goals in the first period. Speaking of history, Draisaitl became the first player ever to score four overtime goals in one postseason. It was also his second OT winner of this series, after he also scored in overtime in the Game 1 victory .
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Draisaitl led the NHL with 52 goals this season and now has 11 in the playoffs. He likely didn't score many like this, when he chipped a shot/pass into the low slot off the rush, only to have it hit Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola , who was on the seat of his pants sliding on the ice. The puck deflected off Mikkola and between Sergei Bobrovsky 's pads to cap the Oilers epic comeback.
Draisaitl (one goal, two assists) finished with three points, as did Florida's Matthew Tkachuk (two goals, one assist) and Sam Reinhart (one goal, two assists).
Calvin Pickard came off the Oilers bench to start the second period and stopped 22 of 23 shots in relief of starter Stuart Skinner to backstop the win.
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It was Reinhart's goal with 19.5 seconds remaining in regulation and Bobrovsky on the bench for the sixth attacker that temporarily saved Florida and forced overtime after it had blown a 3-0 lead and allowed Edmonton to score four straight.
The fourth of those Edmonton goals came at 13:36 of the third period when defenseman Jake Walman hammered a slap shot inside the right post
The teams took turns dominating the first two periods. It was all Panthers in the opening 20 minutes, with the Oilers flipping the script the next 20. The third period was played on more even terms.
Florida jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on a pair of power-play goals by Tkachuk at 11:40 and 16:56, his first two scores of any kind in the series. Then Anton Lundell skated right down the middle of the ice to bury a Carter Verhaeghe pass at 19:18 to make it 3-0 and put an exclamation point on a near perfect first period for the Panthers.
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They out-shot the Oilers 17-7, out-attempted them 34-15 and had a 22-5 advantage in scoring chances in all situations, including a whopping 13-2 of the high-danger variety. At 5v5, the Panthers had an expected goals share of 77.78 percent, per Natural Stat Trick .
Simply, the Panthers picked up where they left off from their 6-1 win in Game 3 and thoroughly dominated the Oilers in the opening period Thursday.
Skinner, who made a series of outstanding saves when the Oilers were out-shot 10-1 in the opening 7:38, was pulled for the second straight game, this time after allowing three goals on 17 shots over 20 minutes.
Perhaps, inserting Pickard changed their mojo because the Oilers were a different team in the second period. They out-scored their hosts 3-0, out-shot the Panthers 17-10, and had a 16-5 advantage in scoring chances (13-3 in high-danger opportunities). Edmonton's expected goal share in the second period was 72.73 percent.
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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins wired a power-play goal past Bobrovsky at 3:33 to start the Oilers comeback. It was his first goal in the past seven postseason games, and Darnell Nurse followed it up when he beat Bobrovsky over the shoulder short side with a snipe from the bottom of the left circle.
Bobrovsky made two huge in the next couple of minutes to keep the score 3-2. He exploded across his crease to deny Draisaitl at 13:57, then robbed Connor McDavid with a sprawling right-pad save after the Oilers captain split the Florida defense and broke in at 14:36.
The Oilers tied the game shortly thereafter. Vasily Podkolzin flipped a backhand shot from the slot past a screened Bobrovsky at 15:05 to make it 3-3.
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Edmonton took its first lead thanks to a Florida turnover in its own end late in the third period. Nugent-Hopkins helped force the giveaway, and Kasperi Kapanen fed a wide-open Walman on right wing for the go-ahead goal.
But in the final seconds, Verhaeghe won a puck battle along the wall to start the scoring play that tied the game again. The sequence ended with Tkachuk and Reinhart playing pitch and catch before Reinhart was able to score from a bad left-wing angle, with Pickard pulled out of position.
Related: NHL Games Today: 2025 Stanley Cup Final Schedule, Dates, Times, and Results
3 takeaways after Oilers rally for 5-4 OT win over Panthers in Game 4 of Stanley Cup Final
1. Turning point easy to 'Pick'
It wasn't a coincidence that Game 4 took a decided sharp turn in the other direction after Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch inserted Pickard to start the second period after his team was pretty much run out of Amerant Bank Arena in the opening 20 minutes. It's not even so much that Skinner was bad, as previously pointed out, the Oilers starter made a string of Grade A stops to keep the game scoreless in the opening minutes.
But the Oilers needed a fresh start in the second period and putting Pickard in goal did just that. It was the clear turning point in the game. The 33-year-old, who was 6-0 earlier in these playoffs before he was injured, offered the Oilers a calming presence in net, and his teammates certainly played a helluva lot better, too. It was a winning combination again for the Oilers. They scored five of the last six goals in this game, with Pickard beaten only off that last-second scramble in regulation.
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Pickard saved his best for last. He got his glove on Sam Bennett 's blast 6:51 into overtime, and deflected the puck off the crossbar. A minute later, Pickard denied Eetu Luostarinen 's rising snap shot for another clutch save. A little more than three minutes later, Pickard was being mobbed by his teammates, with Skinner giving him the longest hug.
2. Comeback kings
Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
The Oilers are the comeback kings of these playoffs. They are an incredible 5-5 in 10 games when trailing after two periods, and have eight comeback victories total. They trailed 3-2 in the third period of Game 1 against the Panthers before tying it and then winning in OT. Edmonton is now 5-1 in six overtime games this postseason, the only loss coming in Game 2, a double-OT heartbreaker.
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None of their comebacks match this one, though, considering the Oilers are just the seventh NHL team ever to rally from three goals down at any point and win a Stanley Cup Final game. They're also the first road team to do so since 1919.
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3. Deja pew
This loss was eerily similar — though worse — than the Panthers' Game 1 defeat, when they blew a 3-1 second-period lead. Uncharacteristic turnovers, like on the Walman goal, and defensive breakdowns pockmarked each of their two losses in this series. The Panthers are 12-2 when leading after two periods in these playoffs; but they're only 2-2 in such a situation against the Oilers in the Final.
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We've seen how the Panthers are able to dust themselves off and get right back to work before — evidenced recently by their wins in Games 2 and 3 after that tough-to-swallow loss in the opener. Let's see how they fare in Game 5, though, when the Panthers will be back in hostile Edmonton on Saturday after flying 2,500 miles on the lone day off between games and having played three overtime games already in the series.
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