ice Hockey
NHL Finals: Furious Oilers shorten the score to 1:3
The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Florida Panthers 8-1. Photo
© Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP/dpa
The Edmonton Oilers return to the NHL finals with a goal festival. Leon Draisaitl records his first point in the final series.
The Edmonton Oilers have qualified for the playoff final of the North American Ice Hockey League NHL made an impressive comeback. Leon Draisaitl’s team beat the Florida Panthers 8-1 in front of their home crowd, reducing the series deficit to 1-3. A total of four wins are needed to win the Stanley Cup.
The Oilers survived the Panthers’ intense opening phase unscathed and celebrated a dream start of their own: First, Mattias Janmark scored into the half-empty goal (4th minute), then Adam Henrique pushed a sharp pass into the net (8th minute). Florida came back close with a deflected shot from Vladimir Tarasenko (12th minute), but Dylan Holloway found the right answer to a power play on a pass from Draisaitl to make it 3-1 (15th minute). For the German, it was his first goal involvement in the current finals.
The Oilers continued to play freely in the second period. Connor McDavid extended the lead with his first goal of the series (22nd minute). Darnell Nurse ensured that the workday of Panthers keeper Sergej Brobovsky, who had been so strong up until the game, ended prematurely with a shot into the corner (25th minute). And Edmonton also managed to score the first power play goal of the final series through Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to make it 6-1 (34th minute).
In the third period, the Panthers tried to turn the momentum around again, but were repeatedly thwarted by the brilliant Stuart Skinner (97 percent save percentage). So it was the Oilers who, in energy-saving mode, made the final score 8:1 through Holloway (55th) and Ryan McLeod (57th).
For game five, they’re heading back to Florida. Then, on Wednesday night, the Panthers have another chance to secure the first Stanley Cup in their franchise history.