SUNRISE, Fla. -- Fernando Pisani was once where the Edmonton Oilers are now, heading into Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final after battling back from a series deficit.
Pisani had 14 goals for the Oilers in the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs and helped Edmonton reach Game 7 of the Final against the Carolina Hurricanes that season, overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-7 series.
The Oilers, however, could not complete the comeback, losing 3-1 in the deciding game.
Pisani hopes the outcome is different this time for Edmonton in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“The morning of Game 7, you’re excited that your end goal is there and one way or the other the season is done, but you try to focus just on the game and your pregame ritual that you do and try not to think about what’s going to happen later that evening,” Pisani said Monday. “It’s hard, at some point you realize you’re playing for the Cup, but it’s important you try to be yourself and that’s the toughest part.”
Edmonton fell behind 2-0 in Game 7 against the Hurricanes in 2006 before Pisani cut it to 2-1 at 1:03 of the third period. The Oilers pushed hard to tie it, but an empty-net goal by Justin Williams put the game away and gave Carolina its first Stanley Cup championship.
“The first goal is big, it can create a big momentum swing for whoever gets it,” said Pisani, now 47. “You never want to be chasing at any point in the game if you can control that. The other side of it, too, [is] when you have the best player in the world on your team (Connor McDavid), if you are down you know you’ll get some good opportunities to tie the game. Their power play and the way those guys have been playing gives them a chance even if they go down.”
When Pisani got the Oilers within a goal, they believed they would eventually tie the game. But they were unable to score another against Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
“When we scored, the mindset was to keep pushing to get the next one,” Pisani said. “But you see how momentum can switch in any game in any series, so you want to make sure if you get the high you’re able to capitalize on it and when you get to the lows, you have to make sure you’re managing the game and getting pucks in and out and make sure you’re not giving up Grade-A chances.”
Pisani and the Oilers took a similar route to Game 7 against the Hurricanes in 2006.
Edmonton fell behind 3-1 in the series, but a short-handed overtime goal by Pisani in Game 5 at RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, gave the Oilers a 4-3 win.
They then won 4-0 in a dominating performance in Game 6 at Rexall Place in Edmonton to set up Game 7 back at Carolina.
“In Game 5, we scored that goal short-handed and in Game 6, we came back to our barn and the place was electric, loud and crazy, and that gave us a spark and we were confident,” Pisani said. “Then you get to Game 7, and they scored. They got the first one, and then we were trying to play catch up from there. We went into Game 7 and we had a lot of confidence; unfortunately, we weren’t able to tie the game.”
Pisani was a Conn Smythe candidate that postseason. His 14 goals were the most by an Edmonton player in the playoffs since Craig Simpson had 16 in 1990.
This season, forward Zach Hyman has 15 playoff goals for Edmonton.
“Every year when you go into playoffs, you have high hopes and high expectations,” Pisani said. “I didn’t expect to score 14 goals, I just wanted to contribute as much as I could. A lot of that I can attribute to the linemates I had and them getting me pucks in good areas and me getting my shot off and me hitting spots that I wanted to hit. Once you start scoring, your confidence is really high, and you just keep riding that wave.”
The Oilers rallied from 3-0 against the Panthers to force Game 7 and are looking to become the second team in Cup Final history to do so and win the series, joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who did it against the Detroit Red Wings.
“They’ve done a great job of turning the tide with their backs against the wall and getting to a seventh game after being down 3-0,” Pisani said. “For them to tie it up and get into a Game 7 situation is huge. It hasn’t been done in 80 years, but this group has the makeup where they’re confident they can get the victory tonight.”
