The Edmonton Oilers crush the Florida Panthers in an 8-1 wallop as Connor McDavid makes Stanley Cup Playoff history.
“It’s just one win, that’s all it is,” the Oilers’ Connor McDavid said. “It doesn’t matter if you score eight or you score one, it’s just one win. We’ve got to go to Florida, do a job and drag them back to Alberta.”
Game four started with an Oilers onslaught which was cut short by an almost ugly tripping penalty from Darnell Nurse. Florida’s powerplay was unable to get set up and eventually gave up the puck to a speeding Connor Brown, who waits for Brandon Montour to crash into Sergi Bobrovsky. Allowing Brown to pass it to Mattias Janmark in front of the net who has no problem opening the scoring for Edmonton.
Less than five minutes later, a Florida turnover allows Janmark to make a perfect one-time pass to Adam Henrique to put the Oilers up two. Shortly after, the Edmonton crowd gives a standing ovation.
After trading chances and a bunch of iced pucks, Florida gets a greasy tip-in goal, with Vladimir Tarasenko getting credit.
“I don’t believe momentum at all because I would have been wrong at 3-0,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “So you just reestablish your game and you come back in the fight. I’ll fire at least one clichĂ© for you so you have something there: We came into Edmonton to get a split and we got what we needed. But there’s also reason for that. Most cliches have some merit. In general things will be far more extreme outside your room than inside. So, at 3-0 we’re not sitting there getting the engravers out. We lost a game tonight. … There’s going to be a Game 5.”
Following Florida’s goal, the Panthers were able to put some sustained pressure on the Oilers.
Florida’s turnaround was cut short by a break and a great Dylan Holloway goal on the rush under the arm of Bobrovsky. Following the Holloway goal, Edmonton gave Florida nothing.
“That is depth scoring,” Janmark said. “The top guys are going to carry their load a lot of nights, but there are going to have to be nights where we chip in. Tonight was one of those nights. It was big tonight and hopefully we can have one more of those or two more of those.”
Just over a minute into the second period, another bad Florida turnover gives Connor McDavid a clean shot in the slot to score with a beautiful snipe top shelf.
In a potential tipping point in the Stanley Cup Finals, Darnell Nurse, five minutes into the second, scores off a clean shot from the point to give the Oilers a five-one lead. Bobrovsky was immediately pulled in favour of Anthony Stolarz in a slew of “Sergi” chants.
For most of the second period, Florida was making mistakes and turning the puck over an insane amount, plus not winning any board battles. As a result, they could not record a shot on net for the first half of the second period.
Frustration started to boil over for the Panthers as simple play to the net resulted in Sam Bennet and Matthew Tkachuk punching Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Both Bennet and Tkachuk were given minor penalties, and the Oilers were able to score on the ensuing five-on-three.
“It’s amazing what can happen when you don’t beat yourself,” Hyman said. “They’re one of the best teams we’ve played against in terms of not beating themselves, not giving you anything from their mistakes. I think that’s what comes from going to the Final last year and all that experience is just how fine the margins are. I think we pushed, and if we’re able to push and limit our mistakes and we’re able to take care of the puck, we’re going to have a good chance.”
The game started to slow down a bit. The Oilers took their foot off the gas pedal, and Florida started to correct their defensive mistakes.
The third period was fairly uneventful early on. Then both Janmark and Nurse took avoidable penalties, but the Oilers penalty kill and, notably, Connor Brown were both fantastic tonight. Brown notably keeps on getting good chances on the rush.
With five minutes remaining, Connor McDavid breaks the NHL playoff assist record with a perfect one-time pass to Holloway. Giving the Oilers a seven to one lead.
“We weren’t together as five as much as we were in previous games and, yeah, they were flying all over the ice,” Tkachuk said. “So, you have to give a ton of credit to them. They played an unbelievable game. That’s kind of the biggest thing they’re known for is their rush game and their skill and making plays. Everybody, lines one through four and all six ‘D,’ they were making some crazy great plays. They looked awesome tonight and we didn’t have an answer.”
Two minutes later, Ryan McLeod scores a beautiful goal off a Holloway pass.
Stuart Skinner also came back strong, making some amazing diving saves that killed the Panther’s morale.
There was no solving the Oilers’ defence and Skinner for the Florida Panthers tonight. There was a stick on every puck, and the entire team’s commitment was phenomenal.
Game Five will be in Florida on Tuesday, June 16th at 8 PM EST.
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