Panthers trounced by Oilers in Game 4, get next shot at Cup back home Tuesday
The quest for the Florida Panthers’ first Stanley Cup title will have to wait at least another few days.
The Edmonton rush was too much for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to handle in Game 4, and the Panthers unraveled for their most goals allowed all season in their first opportunity to seal the Stanley Cup Final, falling 8-1 to the Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.
With Florida still leading the series, 3-1, action shifts more than 2,5000 miles from the northern reaches of Alberta, Canada back to Sunrise for Game 5 Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena for another potential championship clincher at home.
“It’s the first opportunity we’ve had — as a franchise, really — to feel the two days (building up to a Stanley Cup elimination game), the excitement of it, the emotion of it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters after Game 4. “We’ll learn how to channel that. That’s all part of the process.”
Said forward Matthew Tkachuk: “Came here, after all that craziness, got a split, and we’re going home in front of our unbelievable fans that are so excited to see us.”
The Panthers’ physical style that kept speedy Edmonton in check over the series’ first three games was ineffective Saturday. They couldn’t contain the desperate Oilers, who on the brink of elimination built off late momentum from Thursday’s Game 3 when the Oilers scored twice to turn a 4-1 third-period deficit into a 4-3 final.
“We got outworked,” forward Aleksander Barkov said. “We gave up too many rush chances. We’ve been good at defending rushes, and I think we gave up some rush chances that we didn’t need to give up.”
The eight goals allowed is most for Florida since Game 5 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final, when the Las Vegas Golden Knights scored nine times en route to clinching the title.
Star Oilers center Connor McDavid, kept quiet through three losses, exploded for a four-point effort with a goal and three assists. Bobrovsky was pulled early in the second period after allowing five goals on 16 Edmonton shots.
“Not a lot of silver linings here,” Maurice said. “Bob got some rest. We’ll take that.”
The Florida defense in front of Bobrovsky and his backup, Anthony Stolarz, took the blame for the goals.
“We gave up eight goals and zero of them were the goalies’ fault,” Tkachuk said as Florida had no answers Edmonton’s patented rush.
Meanwhile, the Panthers’ offense was held down. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner stopped 32 of the 33 shots that came his way.
The scoring started Saturday with a shorthanded goal for the Oilers 3:11 into the first period. Mattias Janmark punched the puck into the net on a 2-on-1 with Connor Brown. It came during a Panthers power play following a tripping penalty on defenseman Darnell Nurse, which was reviewed as a possible five-minute major.
Although Florida then killed off a penalty for too many men on the ice, it subsequently gave up an even-strength goal. Adam Henrique tipped a shot from in front of the net off a centering pass from Janmark to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead within Game 4’s first eight minutes.
But by the middle of the first, the Panthers got one of those goals back.
Vladimir Tarasenko’s redirect off a shot from the blue line from Gustav Forsling found the back of the net, squeaking under Skinner’s glove.
The Panthers nearly tied it moments later. Carter Verhaeghe had an open net but Skinner made a diving save.
“We battled back,” Barkov said, “but it wasn’t enough.”
Instead, Edmonton extended its lead back to two goals with about five minutes left in the action-packed first. Dylan Holloway scored with nifty stick work to beat Bobrovsky from the slot off an assist from Leon Draisaitl.
The Oilers continued their onslaught early in the second.
McDavid zoomed through the Panthers defense on one rush to score his first goal of the Stanley Cup Final. Three minutes later, McDavid dropped back a pass to set up Nurse for the fifth goal, which chased Bobrovsky for Stolarz.
The Oilers added a sixth goal, from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while on a 5-on-3 due to roughing penalties from Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett.
Edmonton scored for the seventh time by way of Holloway’s second goal deep in the third period. McDavid had his third assist. Ryan McLeod added another goal a minute and a half later, and Holloway’s assist gave him three points on the night.
Game 5 will have an 8 p.m. puck drop Tuesday night as the Panthers get another chance to clinch the Cup at Amerant Bank Arena.