GAME RECAP: Panthers 5, Oilers 3

SUNRISE, FL – Captain Connor McDavid scored twice, including once on a penalty shot, but the Edmonton Oilers couldn't turn an early two-goal lead in the first period into two points on Monday night in a 5-3 defeat to the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena.

The Blue & Orange jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame through McDavid and Evander Kane before the Panthers answered back with two goals before the first intermission from Carter Verhaeghe and Niko Mikkola, with the latter's goal coming 96 seconds after Kane notched his eighth goal of the campaign.

"I just think we're not playing the full 60 minutes; deviating away from what was making us successful in the early going," defenceman Evan Bouchard said. "That's something that we've got to figure out."

McDavid set the new Oilers franchise record for penalty-shot goals with the third of his career in the second period, making it 3-2 before the Panthers scored 66 seconds later via defenceman Niko Mikkola – the second time in the game where Florida answered back in the two minutes that followed an Edmonton goal.

Kevin Stenlund scored the eventual game-winner with 6:18 remaining in the middle frame, with Edmonton's power play failing to convert on two chances in the final frame and finishing the night 0-for-3. Florida cashed in on one of their four power-play opportunities.

"I thought we passed the puck and took the puck to the net. The penalties kind of took away our momentum," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I think there were times where we looked like the better team, and obviously they looked like they were better at other times, but we just have to string 60 minutes together."

The Oilers fall to 5-11-1 on the season and move on to Raleigh where they'll face the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night at PNC Arena.

FIRST PERIOD

After Edmonton jumped out to a two-goal lead, the Cats clawed their way back before the intermission.

Panthers defenceman Gustav Forsling struck the post before the Oilers countered up the ice and scored the game's opening goal through their captain just under six minutes into the contest. McDavid got a low pass along the goal line from Draisaitl, where the captain elected to one-time the German's pass and sneak a tough-angle shot short side on netminder Sergei Bobrovsky for his fifth goal of the season.

Three minutes later, Ryan McLeod won a race to the puck along the half-boards and passed it off to Derek Ryan, who set up Kane for an open look from the left circle that he buried low glove side for his eighth goal of the campaign, tying him with Zach Hyman for the team lead.

The Oilers were sitting pretty at the first period's halfway mark before Florida began fighting their way back with their first power play of the night.

With Kane in the box for roughing, forward Carter Verhaeghe found space at the top of the zone with only Darnell Nurse between him and netminder Calvin Pickard, who was making his Oilers debut in Sunrise on Monday night. Verhaeghe picked his spot top corner on the man advantage to provide the Panthers a response just 96 seconds after Edmonton went ahead by two.

"The PK has obviously struggled all year for a number of different reasons, and if we can find a way to get a kill and keep it 2-0, [it helps]," McDavid said. "We've got to find our game again, but the momentum seems to turn with that one, and obviously we end up tied at two after one."

Niko Mikkola would make it a tie game before the break on an unfortunate attempted clearance from Mattias Ekholm, who hit Hyman in the back before it found its way to the Cats blueliner on the left side for a wrist shot that went under the left arm of Pickard with 4:07 left in the opening frame.

"We should have been happy with the lead 2-1 at that moment and we just have to, whatever happens, put it behind us and just worry about our next shift," Knoblauch said.

SECOND PERIOD

Once again for the Oilers, it was in the two minutes after they scored where they had trouble keeping the Cats quiet.

McDavid was chopped down on a breakaway at the quarter mark of the middle frame, leading to the referee pointing to centre ice and awarding the captain his seventh-career penalty shot. He went hard into the end boards on the play, but McDavid collected himself for the one-on-one with Bobrovsky where he out-waited the Panthers' puck-stopper before going low blocker with his attempt to give Edmonton the 3-2 lead.

The penalty shot conversion by McDavid was the third of his career on seven attempts, giving No. 97 the Oilers franchise record for most penalty-shot goals. The captain also secured his first multi-goal game of the season with the goal, giving him six for the season through 15 games played.

However, just 66 seconds later, it was another unfortunate sequence that nullified Connor's franchise record-setting penalty shot.

Verhaeghe's stick was flung out of his hands as Kane pursued a puck, and that detail would come into play not long after. Philip Broberg was skating backwards defending Mikkola carrying the puck up ice by the benches before Edmonton's young defender tripped over Verhaeghe's loose stick, creating a partial odd-man rush for the Panthers.

When the Finnish defender for Florida tried to put it across to Evan Rodrigues, Nurse slid across to try and defend the pass, but his trailing stick ended up redirecting the puck through the five-hole of Pickard to even things up once again.

"You can call it luck, but obviously those are hockey goals and we've got to find a way to score a few ourselves," McDavid said.

Then, a breakdown by the Oilers off a Florida zone entry with seven minutes left in the middle frame put the Panthers ahead for the first time in the game.

Stenlund finished off a flurry of Florida chances that came off plenty of persistence around Edmonton's crease after the puck was originally put on net by the defenceman. Stenlund turned with the puck at the right circle and snapped a short-side shot past Pickard, who couldn't get across in time with the puck bouncing erratically in front of his crease to delay his reaction.

"A lack of effort, a little bit of frustration, but also everyone working together," Knoblauch said. "The effort has been great. I have no questions about that. But when you're frustrated, you often aren't thinking clearly with a clear mind and often you forget an assignment or you work too hard; you over back check and you open up the slot. Those kinds of things are where we need to just step back and just make the right place."

THIRD PERIOD

McDavid has said it a few times this season: "It's not necessarily about how many power-play goals you score, it's about when you score."

The Blue & Orange still can't seem to find that all-important goal with the man advantage when it matters most this season.

"I think power plays got to find a way to put the puck in the net," Bouchard said. "Not only just generate momentum, but in a game like that, we're trying to get back into it and have a couple of power plays. You really got to bear down and put the puck in the net."

Edmonton's power play had a vital chance to equalize with the man advantage after Stenlund was charged for holding Derek Ryan with just over seven-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation, but the opportunity went without any real meaningful scoring chance from the Oilers to drop their power play to 0-for-3 on the evening and 0-for-8 on their current four-game road trip.

Time would run out for Edmonton, who couldn't leverage their early two-goal lead into a victory in an eventual 4-3 defeat.

The Oilers have now scored the first goal in 11 of their 17 games this season, but are 4-6-1 in those games with their six losses after having a 1-0 lead being the most in the NHL.

PARTING WORDS

Bouchard on the Oilers recalibrating and getting back on track:

"I think we've got to learn from this, go forward, watch video, but then we've got to get focused for the next game. You can't really focus on that too much or think about it too much. I think you sleep on it, learn from it, and get going to the next game."

Ekholm on the play of Calvin Pickard, who made his Oilers debut in the defeat:

"I thought he seemed very calm back there. Again, I think we could have played better in front of him. I think he made some really key saves in the third to keep us in the game. So yeah, nothing but praise for him obviously. I know it's a tough situation coming. He hadn't played in the League for a while and I thought he looked, again, very calm and did everything he could. So I thought he played really well."

Coach Knoblauch on Edmonton's puck luck that went against them, including Broberg's trip on a stick on the ice:

"You have to do things right to get the luck, and over the course of the season or a stretch, hopefully, it works out that you get your breaks as long as you're working for them... I think we had enough chances to win, we just have to limit the opportunities the opposition gets."