Connor McDavid was held without a point, so Leon Draisaitl and the other top players of the Edmonton Oilers did their best to give them one Stanley Cup victory.
Draisaitl made his first big impact in the Finals by setting up Warren Foegele’s early goal, Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman scored in the second period and the Oilers forced a Game 7 by beating the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 6 on fridaynight.
“At the end of the day, we play to win and this will be the toughest game for us,” Draisaitl said. “We have to bring our game again.”
They are the first team to tie the final game after trailing 3-0 in the series since the Detroit Red Wings in 1945. The Oilers have a chance to join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs as the only NHL teams all coming. the way back from that deficit to lift the Stanley Cup.
“There was unwavering faith,” Hyman said. “No matter what happened all year, we always believed we could get through it. No matter how dire the circumstances, we think we have a chance. It was a long season of setbacks that prepared us. The next one will be the hardest. It feels incredible to do this in front of such an audience. To have a chance to win now, this is our first chance to win.”
The chance to make hockey history and end Canada’s 30-year Cup drought only exists after McDavid’s heroics with four points each in Games 4 and 5 brought the Oilers back from the brink to belief. This was the first time in his nine-year career that they won a match in which he did not have a point and did not put a shot on net.
Draisaitl, his old running mate from Germany who has also been the league’s MVP and is considered one of the best players in the world, lit the spark in Game 5 after being largely ineffective against the Panthers.
“He’s a horse,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “He always shows up at the most important moments. If you look at all his playoff performances, he’s one of the best to ever do it.”
Draisaitl picked up the puck at center ice, skated around and through the Florida defensemen and placed the puck on the tape of Foegele’s stick for a tap-in that Sergei Bobrovsky had almost no chance of stopping. Of course, that didn’t stop the excited sold-out crowd of more than 18,000 people from mockingly chanting, “Ser-gei! Ser-gei!” starting before the national anthems and continuing throughout the night.
The goalkeeper everyone calls ‘Bob’ was hardly to blame, however, as mistakes for him also contributed to the 2-on-1 rush that ended with Henrique beating Bobrovsky in a 2-on-1 rush after a perfect pass from Mattias. Janmark. The Panthers in front of their goaltender looked tight and timid and unlike the juggernaut that reached the finals for the second year in a row, winning its first three games and being on the brink of the first title in franchise history.
“We have one game left,” Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov said. “We were ready from the beginning to play a seven-match series, and nothing changes now. We were up three and they played three good games. It is now up to us to win at home.”
Florida had just six shots on net midway through the game and finished with 21. Continuing the trend of being there when the Oilers need him most, Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner made timely saves to thwart the Panthers, allowing Aleksander Barkov only got one goal. then 90 seconds into the third period.
“He came out when we needed him,” Janmark said of Skinner.
The first time Barkov got the puck past him, 10 seconds after Henrique scored, the goal came off the board when Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch successfully challenged for offside. An extensive review found that Sam Reinhart entered the offensive zone perhaps an inch or less before the puck, the announcement of which was followed by a roar from the fans.
“I actually didn’t think it was that close,” Knoblauch said. “In my view it was definitely offside.”
That wasn’t the loudest thing Rogers Place got, and there were plenty of candidates for that distinction. The decibel meter on video screens reached 113.8 as the Oilers took the ice to the tune of Metallica’s Enter Sandman.
It might have approached that noise level when Ryan McLeod and Nurse scored empty-netters in the final minutes, prompting chants of “We want the Cup!” “We want the cup!” and a wild party at the outdoor viewing party.
That was the feverish feeling of a city engulfed in a sea of blue and orange downtown in the hours before the puck dropped. Friday might as well have been a holiday in Edmonton, home to nearly a million people who can now fully indulge in dreams of the Oilers adding another white championship banner to the rafters — and in the most unlikely way possible.
“We’re just excited to keep our season going,” McDavid said. “That’s what it was all about. Game by game, day by day. I’m looking forward to the next one.”