GAME RECAP: Panthers 4, Oilers 1 (Game 2)

SUNRISE, FL – The Oilers will need to put the "you're not in trouble in a series until you lose at home" theory to the test this week as they dropped Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final 3-1 to the Panthers on Monday and will head back to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4 facing a 2-0 deficit.

After scoring in Game 1, Evan Rodrigues found the back of the net twice in Game 2, while Sergei Bobrovsky followed up his 32-save shutout with 18 stops between the Panthers pipes.

Mattias Ekholm made it 1-0 Oilers in the opening frame, but the home side scored four unanswered goals to come away with the victory as they defended home ice to open the championship.

"It's not ideal, but we have two games at home," Zach Hyman said after Monday's loss. "You've got to take care of business at home, and they just did that at home. Now it's our job to go back to Edmonton and win two – and it starts with one."

Despite the series deficit and the tough task ahead, Edmonton's leader shared plenty of optimism.

"It's exciting," Connor McDavid said. "It's another opportunity for our group to come together and dig our way out. It's supposed to be hard, it's supposed to be difficult, and I'm excited to see what our group's made of. I'm excited to see us fight through adversity and I'm looking forward to people doubting us again. We're good with our backs against the wall."

FIRST PERIOD

After a relatively tame Game 1 from a physicality and altercations perspective, Game 2 flipped the script in a big way in the opening frame with one major and three minor penalties, as well as multiple players missing time due to apparent injuries from hits.

Carrying the momentum of Saturday's victory into Monday's matchup, the Panthers had a dominant opening six minutes in terms of puck possession and offensive zone time, but they got a bit too aggressive when Sam Bennett stuck his leg out on Evan Bouchard while the Oilers defenceman was making a pass next to his net, getting called for tripping.

The Oilers couldn't get anything going on the power play, though, and did not register a shot to make it four straight man-advantage opportunities without a goal to start the series.

Fortunately, their penalty kill remained red-hot and came up big when Warren Foegele received a five-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing Eetu Luostarinen in the Edmonton zone. The Panthers forward went to the locker room for assessment but returned to action later in the period.

Mattias Janmark's superb PK work continued during the major as he drew a tripping penalty on fellow Swede Oliver Ekman-Larsson to create a four-on-four scenario.

The Swedish trend continued from there as Mattias Ekholm opened the scoring, calling his own number on a two-on-one rush with Leon Draisaitl and firing a wrist shot through Bobrovsky's five-hole for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

It wasn't all good news for Edmonton in the middle portion of the period as Darnell Nurse left the game with an ailment after a collision with Rodrigues in the corner. He returned to the bench near the end of the frame and went for a loop during the next available TV timeout before heading back down the tunnel with Head Athletic Therapist T.D. Forss.

"Losing Darnell wasn't ideal early," said Bouchard, who ended up playing 30:40 with his fellow blueliner injured. "He's a big part of the back end, and we've got to find a way to step up for him."

The Panthers also lost one of their top defencemen for portions of the period as Aaron Ekblad appeared to be struggling with a lower-body impediment after a collision into the end boards with McDavid.

The Oilers were able to waste the remainder of Foegele's major for their 31st consecutive successful PK, but they were right back to work at the end of the first when Bouchard was called for a questionable roughing minor on Matthew Tkachuk.

SECOND PERIOD

The teams each ended up having abbreviated unsuccessful power plays to start the middle frame as a Tkachuk hooking infraction appropriately negated the remainder of Bouchard's penalty.

The game calmed down a bit from there until a wild sequence from Niko Mikkola around the midway mark ultimately led to the equalizing goal for Florida. Just moments after the defenceman nearly put a spinning backhand pass into his own net past a surprised Bobrovsky, Mikkola went down the other way and stepped into a drop-pass from Anton Lundell that beat Stuart Skinner on the glove side.

The Oilers got their third PP opportunity of the night with 6:05 on the clock as Carter Verhaeghe tripped McDavid. Both Bouchard and Nugent-Hopkins hit the post during a dangerous two minutes, but the score remained knotted at 1-1.

It was Florida's turn for a man advantage with 3:40 on the clock after Bouchard was called for slashing, but the Oilers extended their PK streak to 33, punctuated by a massive point-blank stop by Skinner on Bennett as the netminder emerged from his crease to smother the forward's attempt.

Nurse only took one shift in the middle frame but did remain on the bench for the duration.

THIRD PERIOD

Florida found the equalizer 3:11 into the third when Rodrigues tallied his second goal in as many games, intercepting a Bouchard clearing attempt and snapping a wrist shot high on Skinner.

The Oilers penalties continued just past the midway point in the period when Leon Draisaitl got his arm up on Aleksander Barkov during a battle along on the boards, sending the Panthers captain to the ice and the Edmonton forward to the box for roughing.

The Blue & Orange PK streak finally came to an end on this occasion as Rodrigues struck again for his third goal of the series, redirecting a pass by Lundell past Skinner to make it 3-1 Florida.

After Evander Kane and Brandon Montour took roughing minors against one another, the teams were back to four-on-four and McDavid had a partial breakaway but was stopped by Bobrovsky with 5:53 remaining in regulation.

The Oilers pulled Skinner for the extra attacker after the TV timeout that followed McDavid's attempt, and Edmonton's four-on-three pressure forced an Ekman-Larsson puck-over-glass delay-of-game penalty, putting the visitors on the PP.

The man advantage was once again unfruitful and Ekblad tallied the empty-net marker with 2:28 to go, closing out a tough third for the Oilers.

"We've got to work our way out of it," McDavid said of the Oilers PP going 0-for-7 to start the series. "It always starts with work with our group. They're a unique penalty kill, just like they're a unique team. They're aggressive. We've got to have guys ready for the puck and making good plays. We've got to string good plays together and we haven't been able to do that."

Nurse continued to battle through what was bothering him, taking two more shifts in the final frame.

"I think he'll be good to play, but he's getting looked at right now," Head Coach Kirs Knoblauch said post-game when asked about Nurse's condition.

The bench boss also commented on the team's mentality going forward in the series.

"We came here and we feel like we played well enough that we should have had a split," Knoblauch said. "That doesn't always happen. We just have to take it one game at a time, but I don't see any reason to panic or do anything drastic. If we win one of these, which I feel like we were capable of doing, we're really happy, so I don't want to get to caught up in we're down 2-0 and we're in a whole lot of trouble. We just have to win the next game."

The Oilers will have an opportunity to do just that in front of a raucous home crowd for Game 3 on Thursday at Rogers Place as Edmonton hosts its first Cup Final game since June 17, 2006.