Panthers push Oilers to brink of elimination in Stanley Cup Final with Game 5 win

EDMONTON, Alberta – The Stanley Cup will be inside Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night. The question is whether it’ll be paraded around the ice for a second year in a row by evening’s end.

The Florida Panthers put themselves within one win of becoming the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since their cross-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021 by taking a 3-2 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 victory Saturday night at Rogers Place.

It was an impressive effort by the Panthers, who showed again in the playoffs that momentum rarely carries from game to game. They showed zero effect from blowing a 3-0 lead in Game 4 before losing in overtime on Leon Draisaitl’s fourth overtime goal of the playoffs.

The Panthers tied an NHL record with their 10th road win (10-3).

Brad Marchand, who scored two goals, and Sam Bennett became the first teammates in 52 years to each score at least five goals in the Stanley Cup Final and the sixth set overall. The last were Frank Mahovlich and Yvan Cournoyer with the Montreal Canadiens in 1973.

Bennett, the NHL’s leading playoff goal scorer, continued his torrid pace by scoring for the 15th time in the playoffs and in his sixth consecutive road game. Only four other players in NHL history had a road goal streak of that length.

Of Marchand’s 10 goals in the playoffs, six have come in this series. The last player to score six goals in a Stanley Cup Final was Esa Tikkanen in 1988.

Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the series in the third period, but it was 3-0 at that point, and any hope of another multigoal comeback by the Oilers ended futilely when Sam Reinhart answered 46 seconds later. Eetu Luostarinen also added an empty-netter.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves in what was a defensive clinic by the Panthers until McDavid’s third-period goal, followed by Corey Perry’s 10th goal of the postseason coming late with an extra attacker. In the previous four games, the teams combined for 32 goals (eight per game) – 14 by the Oilers.

Calvin Pickard, who got the start over Stuart Skinner after replacing him two games in a row, sustained his first loss of the playoffs to fall to 7-1. Edmonton is trying to become the third team in NHL history and first since the 1984 Oilers to start two goalies in the Stanley Cup Final and win the Cup.

Here are some takeaways from Saturday night:

Panthers dominate first period again

One game after taking a 3-0 first-period lead into the second period until things disintegrated, the Panthers outplayed the Oilers dramatically in the first period to carry a 2-0 lead into the second.

The Oilers were flat, giving Florida way too much room coming in over the blue line and were beaten to loose pucks continuously with the Panthers extending their first–period score advantage in the series to 11-4 (7-0 in the past three first periods).

Edmonton went the final 11:10 without a shot on goal and three total in the period. Natural Stat Trick had the Oilers for one 5-on-5 high-danger chance.

Marchand opened the scoring and has 13 career Stanley Cup Final goals, the most amongst active NHLers. Marchand became only the second player in the past 59 years to score at least five goals in multiple Stanley Cup Finals (2025, 2011). Mario Lemieux had five in 1991 and 1992 with the Penguins.

Then, Bennett continued his postseason tear by extending his league record with his 13th goal on the road.

It came after a strong Panthers penalty kill, then Evan Rodrigues pressuring Mattias Ekholm into a neutral-zone turnover before Bennett stepped into a puck after Matthew Tkachuk had his shot blocked.

Tough start for the Ekholm-Walman duo

The Oilers decided to switch their defense pairs to facilitate getting Troy Stecher back into the lineup for John Klingberg for Game 4.

They went with an often-used pairing (Stecher and Darnell Nurse), another with a reasonable track record (Brett Kulak and Evan Bouchard), and one with almost no time together (Ekholm and Jake Walman). They kept those groupings together to start Game 5.

The one that shared the ice for just 1:31 at 5-on-5 during the regular season, per Natural Stat Trick, struggled mightily.

Ekholm had his worst period of the playoffs in his sixth game since his return from a lower-body injury. Oddly enough, he spent most of the period playing his right side, which he’s seldom done since being acquired by the Oilers in February 2023.

Marchand walked Ekholm on the first Florida goal, moments after a center-ice faceoff when he was lined up on the starboard side with Nurse. Ekholm was also slow to react after Tkachuk’s shot was blocked by Walman and went right to Bennett before his goal. Granted, Mattias Janmark was more at fault for not picking up Bennett.

Overall, the Oilers were outshot 4-1 and outattempted 10-2 in the 5:09 Ekholm and Walman shared the ice at 5-on-5 in the opening period. Ekholm was back with Bouchard, his tried-and-true partner, for the second.

Walman got time with Bouchard, too. While alongside him in the third period, Walman got embarrassed on Marchand’s second goal – just to make matters worse.

McDavid finally breaks through

McDavid’s first goal of this Stanley Cup Final didn’t come until his 19th recorded shot of the series.

The Oilers captain put a clever deke on Bobrovsky at 7:24 of the third period, briefly narrowing his team’s deficit to 3-1. He barely celebrated given the hole Edmonton was in at that point.

McDavid had played six straight games in the Stanley Cup Final without scoring. That included the first four games of this series and Games 6 and 7 of last June’s final. He had a two-goal performance in Game 5 of that series, beating Bobrovsky once and putting another into an empty net.

He had been feeling some heat, saying before Saturday’s game that “it’s been tight 5-on-5 for everybody.”

McDavid had two solid chances before eventually scoring, chopping a rebound off the post after linemate Connor Brown drove hard to the crease in the first period. McDavid’s shot bounced off the iron and out into the crease area through Bobrovsky’s legs and somehow went to safety.

During a second-period power play when Edmonton threatened, McDavid swooped in off the flank and rang a shot off the right post.

Pickard finally loses

To the surprise of no one, Pickard got his seventh start of the playoffs, two days after rescuing the Oilers and spurring a remarkable comeback victory in Game 4. How could they not ride the guy with a 7-0 record?

Well, Pickard’s good fortune finally ran out.

The 33-year-old suffered his first loss of the postseason after allowing four goals on 18 shots. He surrendered a pair of goals in each of the first and third periods, as the Oilers started poorly and didn’t close much better.

There might not have been a bad goal in the lot, though it’s fair to debate how superb Marchand’s finish was after he deked out Walman.

Still, he allowed four past him in a loss, so questions about who will or should start Game 6 will persist.

The Oilers are trying to become just the third team in the expansion era to win the Stanley Cup by starting two goalies in the Final. They’ll need more saves from whoever’s in net the rest of the way to join that group.