A week ago, almost the entire hockey world saw The Florida Panthers had their first Stanley Cup in franchise history and had a hard time imagining how the Edmonton Oilers could turn the NHL season's final series around and regain their championship chances. But the Oilers accomplished this feat and quite unexpectedly became the favorites of the confrontation.
The last games of the battle for the Stanley Cup — 2024 recalled the axiom of three repetitions: the first victory of the Oilers, who defeated the Panthers with a score of 8:1, seemed like an accident, and the second with the incredible performance of Connor McDavid is a coincidence. The third already seems to be a pattern.
Having returned the series to Edmonton, the Oilers took the initiative into their own hands and did everything to make their comeback not seem like a fantasy. Chris Knobloch's players showed with their play that this has become a real reality. The powerful and once merciless attack of “Florida” suddenly went through the process of turning from a carriage into a pumpkin and completely went out: the “Panthers” simply stopped creating danger at the other goal, and Stuart Skinner, even if he got to work, coped with it without any special difficulties. The Canadian failed only in the third period, when Florida leader Aleksandr Barkov scored a beautiful goal after a spectacular solo pass.
But Barkov could have had one more goal if his first goal, scored at the beginning of the second period, had not been canceled due to a controversial offside…
But if Skinner pulled at the right moment, then it’s hard to say the same about his counterpart. Oilers fans even before the start of the match organized psychological pressure on Sergei Bobrovsky and, perhaps, achieved their goal.
After a couple of saves in the opening of the match, the Russian goalkeeper of Florida still missed in the eighth minute, when Warren Fegele closed brilliant assist from Leon Draisaitl. And then — already in the second period — two more goals hit his goal, which essentially doomed the Panthers.
The third goal, scored by Zach Hyman, was special. The Canadian forward of Edmonton confirms his status as the best sniper of this playoffs. He scored his 16th goal in the current tournament and surpassed the result of Alexander Ovechkin (15 goals in the 2017/18 season) and Sidney Crosby (15 goals in the 2008/09 season), becoming the best active NHL player in goals in one playoff game -off.
This advantage in the score was enough for Edmonton to get an important and even historic victory. It was possible to secure it thanks to two more pucks sent into an empty net. The plan of the Florida coaching staff to remove Bobrovsky more than three minutes before the end of regulation time did not pay off.
The Oilers evened the series and became the authors of only the third time in NHL history when one team succeeded come back from 0-3 in the Stanley Cup Final. In 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a comeback in the battle with the Detroit Red Wings and eventually became champions; in 1945, Detroit won back against the same Toronto, but still lost in the decisive match . What will be the outcome of today's series will be shown by the seventh match, which will take place in the home walls of Florida. The Panthers no longer have room for error, but everything is going to the point that Sergei Bobrovsky may be left without the historic championship, which was so close.
Drama. Not otherwise.