Oilers keep another comeback bid alive with Game 5 win

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The goal for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday was to get the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers back to Alberta, and they accomplished it with a 5-3 win in Game 5 here at Amerant Bank Arena.

The Oilers are expecting an exuberant reception for Game 6 at Rogers Place on Friday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS) after cutting their series deficit to 3-2, having lost the first three games.

“We’re very excited to go back in Edmonton and that this series is continuing,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I think the atmosphere of being back home in front of our crowd, it was a party and it felt great to be out there and play in front of our home crowd. We wanted to do that again, it was something that we were thinking about before the game.”

Edmonton is trying to become only the second of 29 teams to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final, matching the feat accomplished by the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings.

They are halfway there, staving off elimination twice.

“I’m really excited (to play Game 6), but I’ve been excited to play all these games,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “Right from Game 1, two months ago in the playoffs, the playoffs are the most fun time of the year. It’s special with this group, it’s special with our city and fans, they make it so fun to go on these runs and I’m really excited to see the energy they bring on Friday night.”

McDavid had two goals and two assists in the Game 5 win, spoiling what the Panthers were hoping would be a Stanley Cup party. The goal for the Oilers coming into the game was to, "Drag the Panthers back to Alberta," and they put together another impressive effort to go home and play one last game in front of their fans.

“Every game is different, so we’re not going to replicate anything, hopefully we can replicate the score, but other than that, we’re coming home again and I’m sure the fans are going to be into it, just like they were in Game 3 and Game 4,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “I feel like we’re playing very free and we’re doing all the things that it takes to little or no talent to be successful; we’re blocking shots, getting pucks out, pucks in, they’re cliches, but they’re so important.”

The Panthers won Game 3, 4-3 and lost Game 4, 8-1 on their last trip to Edmonton. Momentum is on the Oilers’ side heading back across North America, but they know the job is far from done.

Even falling behind 3-0, the Oilers always believed they could rally and win their first Stanley Cup since 1990 and become the first Canadian-based team to win since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, even if few outside of their dressing room did.

Edmonton has been counted out so many times this season it has lost track, dating back to when it fell to the bottom of the NHL overall standings after a 2-9-1 start to the season.

“We feel as good as we did when we were 0-3, maybe just a little bit better,” Ekholm said. “At the end of the day, we’ve believed in this whether you guys (media) thought those were things we just said, down 0-3 or not, but we have a belief that we’re going to pull this off.

“When you look at these last two games, we’ve probably gotten what we deserved more than we did in the first three games. We’re playing to our strength, we’re doing all the little things that it takes and you look at the last five minutes we’re trying to hold on. I don’t know if they had a shot from the outside. It was a good win for us, but we have more to do.”

An argument can be made Edmonton has outplayed Florida in four of the first five games and was unfortunate to be down 3-0 in the series. The Oilers certainly looked at it that way, outshooting the Panthers 32-18 in Game 1 and 35-23 in Game 3, but losing 3-0 and 4-3 respectively.

Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was outstanding through the first three games of the series, but has allowed 11 goals in the last six periods he's played. Bobrovsky was pulled at 4:59 of the second period in Game 4 after giving up five goals on 16 shots.

“I think the roof is going to come off that place (Rogers Place), they’re going to be fired up,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said. “We’re going to stick to our game plan and keep playing.”

Given all Edmonton has been through this season, dropping to the bottom of the standings, undergoing a coaching change with Knoblauch taking over from Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12, falling behind 3-2 in the Western Conference Second Round against the Vancouver Canucks and 2-1 in the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars, the Oilers are starting to feel like a team of destiny.

Brown feels it would be fitting if they were to win the Stanley Cup by coming back from three games down and winning four straight.

“I think when you look at the way this season has gone,” Brown said. “It seems to be we back ourselves in a corner and we get feeling really comfortable and calm there and we find a rhythm and right now, we’ve found a rhythm.”