How the Oilers won Game 6 against the Panthers, bringing them to the brink of a historic Stanley Cup comeback: 5 takeaways

EDMONTON — Thousands of fans wearing orange and blue were celebrating at Rogers Place and in the streets of Alberta’s capital on Friday night.

After being counted out by almost everyone outside the locker room when they lost 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers did the unbelievable, forcing a Game 7 on Monday with a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers. .

For a team that tied for last in the 32-team NHL field on Nov. 9 and trailed in the previous playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars, that’s almost appropriate.

The Oilers are only the third team in NHL history to win three games when facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Final. The others were the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1945. The 1942 Leafs are the only team in NHL history to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win the Stanley Cup.

Until now.

“The job is not over yet,” said Zach Hyman, who scored a separate goal in the game. “It’s a great story but you have to finish it. Everyone will forget if we don’t finish it. That’s the key. It’s great to give them a moment like this, but I think they’re waiting for a bigger moment.”

It was a dominant performance from start to finish on Friday, as the Oilers gave up two shots on goal in the first period and zero to the Panthers forward until more than halfway through the game.

Warren Voegele and Adam Henrique also scored for the Oilers, and Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse added an empty-netter. Hyman now leads all scorers this season with 16 goals. Add to that his regular season, and he has 70 goals during an incredible 2023-24 season.

Aleksander Barkov, whose goal was wiped off the board early in the first period when Sam Reinhart was ruled offside after a coach’s challenge, scored a stunning goal in the third period to bring the Panthers to within 3-1.

Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 19 of 20 shots — and had an assist on Nurse’s net — while the Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 of 19 shots.

Edmonton’s 18 goals as it faced elimination in the Stanley Cup Final put it one goal short of that 1942 Maple Leafs (19) Most in NHL history.

They have all the momentum going into Game 7.

“It’s been a hell of a story so far, but at the end of the day, we play to win, and this will be the toughest game for us,” Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said. “They’re going to come out strong. They’re going to play at home. We’ve got to get our game back. I’m really proud of the way we gave ourselves a chance. That’s what it’s all about.”

“This is not going to be easy by any means, a walk in the park. This is going to be the toughest game of the series. We know that. We are aware of that. But nonetheless, I’m really, really proud to give ourselves a chance.”

Here are five quick points on how the Oilers did just that, bringing them to the brink of history.

Oil companies dominate first

Rogers Place was buzzing before the game, and fans had plenty of reasons to bring electricity throughout the first period as the Oilers controlled almost every second of play. They outrebounded the Panthers 11-2, allowing no shots on a single penalty kill. Florida’s only shots overall came from veteran defenseman Oliver Ekman Larsson.

The Oilers jumped out to a 1-0 lead for the third straight game on Voegele’s goal after Aaron Ekblad, who has shown cracks throughout the series, made splits and fumbles. Foegele also fell to the ice but quickly got up and took a pass from Draisaitl to score one goal out the back door, the forward’s third goal in 21 games.

But to be as dominant as the Panthers were in the first game and only trail by a goal should have felt like a win. Bobrovsky kept Florida in a game it didn’t have the right to be in.

The Oilers score first pic.twitter.com/FyFXZithaV

– B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 22, 2024

Barkov’s goal goes off the board

Just 10 seconds after Henrique scored in the first minute of the second period to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead, the Panthers got what they thought was a huge goal from Barkov after a tough zone entry from Carter Verhaeghe, who had been surprisingly quiet in the series. But the Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch issued the coach’s first challenge of the series, arguing that Reinhart was offside when Verhaeghe walked down the blue line.

After a lengthy review, the referee’s linesmen, in coordination with the NHL’s Toronto Situation Room, ruled that Reinhart had indeed crossed the line by millimetres. The goal was cleared off the board and the half-time difference was two goals again.

The game of inches (or maybe less) 👀 pic.twitter.com/wcL2Tb7uQO

– B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 22, 2024

Panthers coach Paul Morris was not happy, to say the least.

Morris hinted that the Oilers had a different view of him.

“I have no idea (if the officials are right),” Morris said. “It could have been offside. The referee told me that was the last clip they got to where they made the decision that said it was offside. I don’t have those. I was upset after the call based on what I see at my feet, and what my video person is looking at. It wasn’t I might challenge that if it were reversed.

“There was no way I think you could definitively say that was offside. I don’t know what (replay angles) the Oilers are getting. I don’t know what the league is going to get. I just know I wouldn’t have challenged that based on what I saw him.

“I’m not saying it’s not infiltration. We’ll get still frames. We’ll bring in the CIA. We’ll find a solution. But in the 30 seconds that I had to (make) that call, I wasn’t going to challenge it.”

“There’s no fucking way, there’s no fucking way.”

Paul Morris is not happy with the outcome of the review 🤬#It’sHunting | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/1Ntbd2ySZj

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL highlights and news (@HockeyDaily365) June 22, 2024

It must have been a mountain to get back to Florida.

Barkov would eventually score a stunning goal in the third.

Barkov (for real this time) pic.twitter.com/KKACITaYKj

– Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) June 22, 2024

Go deeper

Johnston: The Panthers’ overturned goal after an offside review became a historic change in Stanley Cup momentum

Another change to Knoblauch’s lineup that works great

Foegele was promoted from the fourth line to play with Connor McDavid and Hyman in Games 4 and 5, bumping into Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to skate with Draisaitl and Dylan Holloway. It’s hard to argue with that move, given the results of these two competitions.

Despite the success, Knoblauch elected to juggle the top two lines before Game 6, flipping Foegele and Nugent-Hopkins. His tweak has paid off — and early.

Foegele finished off a pass from Draisaitl on a freak rush with 7:27 into the game for his third goal of the playoffs. That assist gave Draisaitl his third point of the series, following his two assists in Game 4. Unsatisfied with his performance, Draisaitl said in the morning that he was “excited to get in the series,” and he certainly did.

The Draisaitl-Foegele connection was just the latest example of the success of Knoblauch’s change. Throw in his dealing with Skinner in the Vancouver Canucks series, pushing Holloway to the top of the lineup and making three changes before Game 4 of the Western Conference Final, and most of the coach’s decisions turned to gold.

The Oilers score first pic.twitter.com/FyFXZithaV

– B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 22, 2024

Tribute to the death penalty

Where would the Oilers be without them coming up short in these playoffs? The superstars, namely McDavid, get most of the spotlight, but Edmonton wouldn’t be one win away from a Stanley Cup title without a shootout.

The Oilers have thwarted three strong games by the Panthers, and have now killed 46 of their previous 47 penalties, including 21 direct penalties at home.

but this is not all. They also had two short-handed goals in the Cup Final, so they beat the Panthers 2-1 while skating. This is the second series in a row in which they have done so. Mattias Janmark scored the first of two short stints of the postseason in the Western Conference Final, allowing the Oilers PK to edge the Dallas Stars PB 1-0.

“In order to get to this point, we needed to change our mentality when it comes to defense and a big part of that is the penalty kill,” Hyman said. “The killer penalty was astonishing, perhaps more so than anyone expected.”

Go deeper

“You feel it,” the Panthers shook after blowing a 3-0 series lead against the Oilers. This painful’

Hyman’s 54 goals during the regular season was one of the best stories of the 2023-24 season. Given his age and where he was drafted, he was one of the 50 most unlikely scorers in NHL history.

He hasn’t slowed down one bit in the postseason.

Hyman scored his second goal of the Stanley Cup Final at 18:20 of the second period. He did so by lunging forward to grab a ball that was blocked by Nugent-Hopkins, turning away from Ekblad, evading a diving Gustav Forsling and slamming a backhander past Bobrovsky.

The goal was Heyman’s league-leading 16th post-season goal. The only players to have recorded that many shutouts in a single playoff game in the past 30 years are Joe Sakic (18 for Colorado Avalanche in 1996) and Pavel Bure (16 for Vancouver in 1994). That leaves him behind Reggie Leach (Philadelphia Flyers, 1975) and Jari Kurri (Edmonton, 1985) for the all-time record.

The number was also Heyman’s 70th in the 2023-2024 season (regular season and playoffs), tying him with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews for first.

McDavid with 72 last season (64 regular season and eight playoff games) is the only active player with more in a single campaign.

“It’s impressive,” Draisaitl said of Hyman. “He’s a Hekova hockey player. Very unique. He’s like a little bull. He jumps out of the gate like no one else can. His first steps were so strong, and I think you really see it today on the goal. He just exploded from there and gone, and he’s calm and composed and collected in front of the net. Just… He knows where he’s going, a really smart hockey player.

Zach Hyman on the breakup 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cSaMYu0LPl

– B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 22, 2024

(Photo: Jeff Vinik/Getty Images)