EDMONTON – The Stanley Cup will be lifted on Monday. Florida is now facing elimination for the first time this Stanley Cup Final. The pressure is starting to show.
Rogers Place in Edmonton was electric. With official sound readings at least 114 dB during the pregame introduction. The Oilers faithful chanted “Sergi” any chance they could; even during the start of the American national anthem. The atmosphere seems to have rattled Sergei Bobrovsky.
“It’s been a hell of a story so far, but at the end of the day, we play to win and this is going to be the hardest game for us,” Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl said. “They’re going to come out hard, they’re going to play at home. We have to bring our game again. I’m just really proud of the way we gave ourselves a chance. That’s what it’s all about. But by no means is this going to be easy, a walk in the park. This is going to be the hardest game of the series.”
The first period was a masterful defensive showing from the Oilers. Holding a team in the Stanley Cup Finals to two shots in 20 minutes of play is an achievement.
With seven minutes left to play in the first, a neutral zone turnover from Florida gives Edmonton a break where Leon Draisaitl makes a brilliant pass to Warren Foegele, who opens the scoring.
Both teams were throwing plenty of hits, but the first period notably contained a shocking amount of lost puck battles and missed passes by the Florida Panthers.
The Second Period started with an electric first minute. A long stretch pass to an awaiting Mattias Janmark at the Panthers blue-line, who walks in to pass to a speeding Adam Henrique, who rifles it past Bobrovsky to put the Oilers up by two.
Of course, when you are down 3-0 you are going to say you believe, but we truly, truly believe in each other and the ability to just win one game at a time,” the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “That’s all it comes down to. You don’t need to worry about winning two, or three, or four, you just win that game, and I think we all have that belief that if we play our best on any given night, we can win, so that’s been our focus, and we put ourselves back in a good spot.”
Just a few seconds later, Barkov answers with a goal. However, it is quickly challenged for offside and then overturned. Visibly deflating the Panthers as they still find themselves down by two goals.
This is even more brutal when the shot clock shows just six for the Panthers halfway through the game. A Connor McDavid penalty allows Florida to get more shots on goal, but very few are testing goaltender Stuart Skinner much.
Edmonton started putting on the pressure late in the period. With two minutes to go, a zone clear by the Oilers during a Panthers line change gave a speeding Zach Hyman a breakaway to score with a great backhand move. Putting the Panthers and Bobrovsky on the brink.
“The job is not done,” Hyman said. “It’s a great story, but you need to finish it. Everybody will forget if we don’t finish it.”
Just a minute and a half into the third period, Alexander Barkov was able to score again with a great solo effort and got Skinner to bite hard on a fake. This time, it was onside. Cutting Edmonton’s lead back to two.
The Panthers were able to possess the puck a lot for large parts of the third, but there were very few actual scoring chances. Edmonton had little issue getting the puck out.
“Right now, if you walked into the room, there won’t be a lot of happy people,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It doesn’t have to be right tonight. You’ve suffered a defeat. You feel it. It hurts. You lick your wounds and we start building that back tomorrow. But who you are tonight means nothing to who you’re going to be two days from now.”
Shortly after Bobrovsky was pulled for an extra attacker, Ryan McLeod scores to put the game away at four-to-one. And for extra measure, Darnell Nurse puts away the game on an assist from Skinner.
“We didn’t think we had it in the bag or anything like that,” Hyman said. “We had to come out strong in the third and they actually got one, but it was a good buffer to have and we were able to manage the game after that.”
Use CodePHN15 Oilers team earns #PHNChairoftheNight for forcing Game 7 in Stanley Cup Final in historic fashion
The Oilers are on the cusp of history. One game left. Please win.
“Ever since we went down in the series we’ve talked about playing from the right end, playing good in the defensive zone and getting rid of our mistakes and put the pressure on them,” the Oilers’ Mattias Janmark.said. “I think we did that throughout the game. We played the right way, we got some looks, scored.”
Game Seven will be hosted in Florida on Monday June 24th at 8 P.M EST
“I think we’re fine,” said Barkov. “Obviously, we had three match points, but Game 7, everyone’s dream and that’s why we need to be ready for the Game 7.”
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