Matthew Tkachuk raced at full speed from center ice, chasing a puck that had sailed over him toward an empty net.
He dove and stretched out his stick, swatting the puck just enough to keep the Florida Panthers’ hope alive of forcing overtime. But it wasn’t to be—the puck ended up with Connor McDavid, who scored to seal the game.
That summed up Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final for the Panthers. Even when they played well, it wasn’t sufficient. Now, they face another long trip to Alberta, with the series suddenly becoming very tight.
Despite giving up two power-play goals and a short-handed goal, falling into a 3-0 deficit, and attempting a comeback, the Panthers ultimately lost 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. This marks the second consecutive missed opportunity for Florida to claim the Cup, following their 8-1 defeat in Edmonton earlier in the series.
Game 6 awaits on Friday night. “I’m not going to praise or comfort anyone. I don’t think that’s necessary right now,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “Everyone probably feels the same way I do. We’re not deflated. The team’s not deflated. Just a bit grumpy.”
“We are moving forward,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “We’ll take lessons from this game.”
Rodrigues and Tkachuk each scored a goal and assisted for Florida, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for the Panthers. This means Florida will have to wait at least three more days to win their first Stanley Cup.
“We have another chance on Friday,” Tkachuk said.
McDavid scored two goals and had two assists, making him the first player in NHL history with back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup Final. Evan Bouchard added three assists for Edmonton. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, and Corey Perry also scored for the Oilers, while Stuart Skinner stopped 29 shots.
McDavid said everyone contributed to the win. But it was also an extraordinary performance from McDavid, the game’s best player, achieving feats never seen before in this championship series.
With these four points, McDavid now has 42 in these playoffs, the fourth-highest in NHL history for a single postseason. The only players ahead of him are the legends: Wayne Gretzky had 47 points in 1985, Mario Lemieux had 44 in 1991, and Gretzky had 43 in 1988.
McDavid will have at least one, and hopefully two, more games to increase his tally. If a Game 7 happens, it will be in Sunrise on Monday night.
“Being mentioned with those two legends is always a positive,” McDavid said.
It was the first time in Panthers history they played a home game with a chance to win the Cup. Another full crowd came, some paying over $1,000 each for tickets on the secondary market — pushing Florida’s season attendance over 1 million for the first time.
The fans came to see the trophy. But the Oilers wouldn’t allow it. After the game, Tkachuk was asked if the Panthers felt pressure.
“No. No. No,” Tkachuk said. “It’s not an elimination game for us. We have a 3-2 series lead, just need to handle business like Game 3.”
Edmonton had dominated recently, scoring 10 of the last 11 goals — a 2-0 third period in their Game 3 loss, and an 8-1 win in Game 4. And they kept it up, especially on special teams.
Game 5 began like Game 4, with Edmonton scoring a short-handed goal. Brown assisted on Saturday; this time he scored solo, putting the Oilers ahead. Florida’s penalty as the first period ended hurt them.
Hyman made it 2-0 early in the second-period power play, and McDavid extended it to 3-0 with a tough-angle shot that looked easy three minutes later.
A three-goal lead had been safe in the Stanley Cup Final for almost 20 years; no team had lost a title game after leading by three since Edmonton vs. Carolina in 2006. Every team since then had won — 39-0 in such games.
Now it’s 40-0. But the Panthers made it exciting. It was 4-2 by the end of the second, Tkachuk and Rodrigues scoring around Perry’s first playoff goal — assisted by McDavid. Ekman-Larsson scored early in the third, but they couldn’t tie it up.
