GAME RECAP: Oilers 8, Panthers 1 (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB – Never count the Blue & Orange out.

The Edmonton Oilers stayed alive in the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday at Rogers Place with an incredible 8-1 victory over the Florida Panthers, receiving two goals and an assist from forward Dylan Holloway and a historic four-point night from Connor McDavid to send the series back to Sunrise for Game 5 on Tuesday.

McDavid set a new NHL record for assists (32) in a single playoff after setting up Holloway for his second goal of the game with over five minutes left in the third period, helping making it 7-1 before Ryan McLeod capped off an raucous evening in ICE District with their eighth tally of the night to help put an end to the Panthers' six-game playoff win streak.

Saturday night's crushing of the Cats began early in the first period for the Oilers after Mattias Janmark finished off his second short-handed goal of the postseason that was assisted by Connor Brown only 3:11 into the contest, with the Swedish forward finishing with a goal and an assist in Edmonton's emphatic Game 4 victory.

Edmonton's depth dominated during a three-goal first period that set the tone at 3-1 through 20 minutes before the stars in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse all found the stat sheet in the middle frame – including their team's first power-play goal of the series that made it 6-1 entering the third period.

Over the final 20 minutes, goaltender Stuart Skinner locked it down to finish the night with 32 saves, while Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky tanked his save percentage after allowing five goals on 16 shots before being pulled in the second period following Nurse's snipe just under five minutes into the stanza.

"I think it's one win. It's one win closer. The mentality is the same," Hyman said. "I think the belief is the same, but it's nice to go do it and get a win and get a couple past this goalie to show we can do it and put a little bit of doubt on the other side. So it's a good win."

Trailing 3-1 in the series, the Oilers will head back to the Sunshine State to try and do it all over again in Game 5 at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.

"It's just one win, that's all it is," McDavid said. "It doesn't matter if you score eight or you score one, it's just one win and we have to go to Florida and do a job and drag them back to Alberta."

FIRST PERIOD

“Keep cheering. Just keep cheering.”

“It's not over ‘til it's over.”

The words of the Oilers captain following Game 3 on Thursday couldn’t have been encapsulated better than during one of, if not the loudest, periods that Rogers Place has ever experienced on Saturday. The captain would have a big part to play as the night progressed towards becoming an unforgettable evening, but the depth delivered early to help build momentum for their team.

"I thought we battled hard in three of the four games. We probably battled hard in all of them, but we thought were the better team in three of the four games," Hyman said. "I thought tonight we limited our mistakes and the mistakes that we did have, our goalie bailed this out. We didn't change anything in this game. We just played hard. We were able to score and we got big saves.

"It's a pretty simple game: win more battles than the other team, get more looks, and you're going to score."

The Oilers scored three times to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission with every drop of momentum falling in their favour in the opening 20 minutes, beginning with an exceptional short-handed effort from the duo of Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark to combine and score their second SHG of the 2024 playoffs.

After the Panthers struck the bar twice on an early power play, Brown made a great chip past Carter Verhaeghe at the blueline to clear the puck and send him and Janmark down on the ice on a two-on-one, where Brown slid the puck back in front from behind the goal line after rounding Bobrovsky before his Swedish linemate backhanded the opening goal off Aleksander Barkov and into the back of the net only 3:11 into the first period.

"I just ran out of real estate there and threw it back in front, but I thought it was there," Brown said. "Bob's obviously a tough guy to beat and it's not like I went down there planning on going behind the net and throwing it back out in front, so I just kind of took what he gave me. I don't think he established his ice and I don't think he was really taking it back. I took advantage of that and the Janitor stuck around the blue paint and hit it home. So that was a big goal for us.

It was Edmonton’s second SHG of the postseason, with both of those coming off the contributions of both Brown and Janmark, with the Swede becoming the first Oiler since Todd Marchant in 1997 to score two shorties in a single playoff campaign.

"It's working right now and we're reading off each other pretty well in that penalty kill, and our whole group on the penalty kill as a whole," Brown added. "So we're having fun out there."

The duo’s other even-strength linemate in Adam Henrique got in on the action over four and a half minutes later by beelining towards the blue paint and intercepting Janmark’s back-hand pass and deflecting his third of the playoffs past Bobrovsky for the 2-0 advantage.

"I thought Janny, Brownie, and Rico, that line was phenomenal," Hyman said. "Janny and Brownie have been phenomenal on the kill and just another timely goal to get the crowd into it. You don't win without everybody, and on any given night, it can be somebody else. That's how teams win is with everybody contributing, and tonight, you see what happens when everybody's feeling well and playing their game. I think every single person played well tonight, and we got the result."

Vladimir Tarasenko got one back for the Cats on the other side of the mid-way mark of the frame with a deflection before Skinner had to come up with a massive save on a two-on-one against Carter Verhaeghe, sliding across the blue paint to get to the forward's knuckle puck with a chest save that slowed the Panthers' push to tie the game.

"That was a message-sender," Brown said. "Obviously there's been a lot of talk about Bobrovsky these first three games, but we've got a young kid in goal who's an old soul playing way above it."

Dylan Holloway then restored the two-goal lead before the final five minutes of the opening period after he accepted Draisaitl’s feed with speed and showed quick hands with a pretty backhand toe drag before he snuck it under the glove of Bobrovsky to match his team's best single-game total in the Stanley Cup Final during Saturday’s opening period.

SECOND PERIOD

After the depth delivered in the opening frame, it was time for the big guns to come out firing – starting with their enigmatic captain Connor McDavid.

"He's such a great player, and that's what makes him so great is when the pressure's the biggest and the moment's the biggest, he shows up," Holloway said.

The moment Oilers fans had been waiting for all series seeing their team’s leader get on the scoresheet finally arrived when Warren Foegele, who was elevated to the top line for Saturday’s tilt, connected on a pass to Hyman, who then found McDavid as he flew through the neutral zone before he beat Bobrovsky with a perfect shot under his blocker only 1:13 into the period.

With his team-leading 35^th point of the playoffs, McDavid has now posted a point in all but five games this postseason and would soon be on his way to picking up his 10^th multi-point game.

McDavid notched his first assist of the period when he set up Nurse in the slot on a drop pass for an unbeatable wrist shot to the top corner on Bobrovsky’s blocker side that spelled the end to the Russian’s night, with his .953 save percentage through the first three games of the series taking a dent after allowing five goals on 16 shots (.688 SV%).

With the result looking like it’d be out of reach for the Panthers, perhaps the best possible takeaway left for the Blue & Orange was to break the series-long schneid on the power play that was 0-for-10 coming into Saturday.

The Oilers failed to convert their first of two power plays in the second period before they were back on the man advantage for an extended five-on-three with Bennett and Tkachuk in the box for roughing. Leon Draisaitl unleashed a one-timer from his regular spot in the right circle that struck the shoulder of former Oilers netminder Anthony Stolarz and hit the crossbar before dropping down into the crease for Nugent-Hopkins to swoop in and chip over the line to make it 6-1.

"I think we've had lots of looks over the first four games and certainly created enough to have a couple go in, but it's just not the way the game works sometimes and I'm just proud of the way we always stick with it and continue to work at it and stay work-based," Draisaitl said. "Hopefully we can build off that."

McDavid matched Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record for the most assists in a single postseason, but it looked like the Oilers – and their captain – weren’t done there.

THIRD PERIOD

The final frame featured the Oilers and Panthers jockeying power plays back and forth, with Skinner shining between the pipes for Edmonton with a pair of exceptional stops while shorthanded to stem the early tide in the period.

From there, the Oilers went back on the offensive, and it was a historic assist for McDavid to create the 7-1 goal and Holloway’s second of Game 4 at the end of an incredible passing play that started off the zone entry from Corey Perry.

The 39-year-old veteran of five Stanley Cup Finals sent the puck down low to McDavid on a three-on-two for the captain to send a pass to the far side for the streaking Holloway to bury his chance and make it seven, signalling a new NHL record for the most assists in a single season for the Oilers captain with his 32^nd helper.

"I guess it is [special]," McDavid said. "Obviously it's not the focus with where we're at, but it's not lost on me. You know what he means to the game."

Before the final buzzer, Edmonton would make it eight on an unstoppable blast from Ryan McLeod, who teed up a loose puck in between the circles that he sent top shelf on Stolarz to cap off an evening in ICE District on Saturday that we won’t soon forget.

The Oilers go back to Sunrise for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Panthers on Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena, trailing 3-1 in the series.