Oilers penalty kill shines again in Game 6 victory against Panthers

EDMONTON -- It’s almost at a point where the Edmonton Oilers penalty killers can’t wait to get on the ice.

Edmonton has clawed back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final to tie the best-of-7 series in large part due to the play of its penalty-killing unit.

The Oilers penalty kill was 3-for-3 in a 5-1 win in Game 6 at here at Rogers Place on Friday and is 18-for-19 in the series. Edmonton has killed off 46 of its past 47 penalties and 21 straight at home. It has a playoff best 94.1 percent efficiency rating in 24 games (64-for-68).

“We’re playing with instinct and fast and closing things down, and when the block needs to be made the guys are making blocks, it’s good,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “I like what we’re doing, and I think for us, even when we have success, we’re always trying to evolve and be even more on our toes, and (assistant coach) Mark Stuart does a great job of preparing us for the game. It’s been good, been instinctual, been fast, shutting stuff down, but we have to do it again.”

Stuart was put in charge of the penalty kill when coach Kris Knoblauch was hired on Nov. 12. He put together three pairs of forwards who rotate through along with five defensemen. All have taken enormous pride in getting their job done 30 seconds at a time.

“We’re just working together, we know how we need to have success and we’ve been doing it, we’ve been clicking together well and it’s just putting tons of pressure on them and not giving them anything easy at all,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “I think with anything, confidence goes a long way. We’ve done a good job. The hardest job is going to be Monday and we’re looking forward to it.”

The Oilers penalty kill has outscored the Panthers power play in the series.

Mattias Janmark scored a short-handed goal to get the Oilers started in an 8-1 win in Game 4, and Connor Brown opened Game 5, a 5-3 win in Florida, with a short-handed goal.

Evan Rodrigues scored the only power-play goal for Florida in the series, in a 4-1 win in Game 2.

Game 7 of the series is at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“They’re prepared and know what they’re doing, and I think we have a good system for the group that we have,” Knoblauch said. “Confidence is an amazing thing where you see with one player gets on a roll and scores goals or whatever it is, but now we have six or seven forwards, four or five defensemen that have that same confidence and being able to work together on the penalty.

“We do have breakdowns, there are things that don’t go perfectly, that’s where your goaltender has to come up big and ‘Stuey’ [Stuart Skinner] has been outstanding.”

Skinner has lived up to the adage, a team’s goalie has to be its best penalty killer. In his second season as Edmonton’s starter, he’s improved as the series has gone along and made 20 saves in the Game 6 win.

“The guys are just battling really hard and I think that us being able to win the face-off and the first draw and being able to get it out is a big help, because we’re doing a really good job on our forecheck,” Skinner said. “We’re keeping guys on the outside in the neutral zone and when they do get their chances we get big blocks.”

Janmark, Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan McLeod, Adam Henrique, Derek Ryan, and Warren Foegele are the forwards prominently used on the penalty kill. Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Brett Kulak, Cody Ceci and Philip Broberg do the bulk of the heavy lifting on the back end.

“We’re getting to loose pucks, and I feel like we’re doing a good job of cleaning up sticks and being physical,” Nurse said. “When we have a chance to clear the puck we’ve been getting our clears too. It’s a good recipe.”

The speed of the forwards on the penalty kill allow the Oilers to be aggressive, which has not allowed the Panthers to get set up in the zone. When they do, Edmonton is getting in the shooting lanes and clearing rebounds away from the net.

“I think we just got a really good flow going right now,” Skinner said. “We’ve gotten a lot of opportunities on the PK, so for us to have that sort of chemistry has been great and we have to do that for another game.”

As good as the penalty kill has been, the Oilers are looking ahead at Game 7, knowing they have to be as effective to pull off the comeback, which has only been accomplished by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 over the Detroit Red Wings.

“I’ve said it before in every series, you work hard at the start of the series, you get a little momentum and a little confidence (on the penalty kill) and they get on their heels a little bit, and we’re on our toes and get the upper hand,” Janmark said. “They’re probably over there looking at the one (power-play) goal they can score, so we’re probably going to have to be at our best the next game.”