GAME RECAP: Panthers 4, Oilers 3

SUNRISE, FL – Sunset in the Sunrise State.

Leon Draisaitl scored his 44th goal of the season to stretch his goal streak to a career-high seven games, but after two goals from the Florida Panthers in a 2:43 stretch of the third period, the Edmonton Oilers would be handed their fifth straight loss on Thursday night with a 4-3 defeat at Amerant Bank Arena.

"There's a lot of internal pressure in here on ourselves and we enjoy that feeling of winning, and we've gotten used to it that's for sure, defenceman Brett Kulak said. "So it sucks when you lose five games in a row, but lots to build off tonight."

Goals from Brett Kulak and Leon Draisaitl erased 1-0 and 2-1 deficits for the Blue & Orange in the opening two periods after both were set up by assists from defenceman John Klingberg, who finished with two assists, while their penalty kill went 6-for-6 to end a run of seven games giving up a power-play goal.

Forwards Nate Schmidt and Carter Verhaeghe struck twice in under three minutes during the second half of the third period to lift the Panthers into a 4-2 lead before Zach Hyman was able to pull a goal back for the Oilers with the net empty at 16:35 of the final frame.

Mattias Ekholm and Corey Perry were charged with penalties with Edmonton chasing the the tying goal, slowing their comeback hopes before time expired to hand the Blue & Orange their fifth defeat in a row and fourth straight on this lengthy five-game Eastern road trip.

"Every year kind of brings up different battles and different adversities for every team to go through. This is another one where we get to kind of figure it out as a team," goaltender Stuart Skinner said. "So it's gonna obviously take all of us chipping in together, talking to each other about what we can do better, and sometimes you got to go through it.

Forward Anton Lundell had a goal and two assists, and defenceman Aaron Ekblad contributed two helpers for the hosts. Goaltender Stuart Skinner had a strong night for the Oilers with four goals allowed on 36 shots, while Sergei Bobrovsky earned the win with 22 saves.

The Oilers will try to end their losing streak in the final game of their lengthy road trip on Saturday night at the Lenovo Center against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"Tonight was a really good game for us with the way that we just skated with our legs," Skinner added. "We worked really hard tonight, and I think that's a big step in the right direction."

FIRST PERIOD

It wasn't an opening period with the polish that we saw this past June during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, but it was the same scoreline heading into the first intermission tied at 1-1 after Brett Kulak made up for having Florida's opener from Uvis Balinskis deflect in off his leg.

The game started with a scrap between Corey Perry and A.J. Greer less than three minutes into the contest to charge up the crowd inside Amerant Bank Arena, seeing two combatants owning nearly identical 6-foot-3 and 208-pound frames go at it – Greer being the heavier of the pair by only a single pound.

Balinskis' opening goal for Florida wasn't their only marker of the period after Edmonton took back what would've been Carter Verhaeghe's icebreaker on the power play with a successful coach's challenge for offside. Verhaeghe put away a cross-ice pass from Sam Bennett with Mattias Ekholm in the box for high-sticking, but Panthers captain Sasha Barkov crossed the blue line too early, making for a quick challenge from the Oilers and review by the officials.

Thanks to the overturned call, the Oilers killed off two penalties in the first nine minutes and were hoping to avoid surrendering a power-play goal for the eighth straight game, having already become one of only five NHL teams this season to allow a PPG in seven straight contests.

Kulak was unlucky when Balinskis' shot following a Florida offensive-zone faceoff caught a piece of his leg as he came through the left circle before the puck found its way inside the far post on Stuart Skinner for the 1-0 lead at 12:28 of the period, but the Stony Plain product would get it back for the Blue & Orange just 1:13 later on a deceptive shot that caught goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky flat-footed in his own crease.

Off a strong zone entry by defenceman John Klingberg, the puck found its way to Vasily Podkolzin along the halfboards before it landed on the stick of Kulak as he came into the left circle to fire a quick effort on goal that fooled Bobrovsky, who didn't even drop to his butterfly as it beat him five-hole to make it 1-1 with 5:19 left in the opening frame.

Kulak's seventh goal of the season marked a new career high for the 31-year-old after his last tally on Jan. 16 in Colorado matched his previous high of six from the 2018-19 season as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

"I think we started to kind of get going throughout the first period, and once we kind of found our legs, I thought we were pretty solid," Stuart Skinner said. "But a tough way to lose, for sure.

SECOND PERIOD

Stuart Skinner made a handful of terrific saves in the middle frame for the Oilers before a deflection off the skate of Anton Lundell with 4:30 left in the period marked the second stroke of bad luck for the netminder to put the Panthers back ahead.

Neither team was able to generate much sustained zone time with exception to a pair of long stretches from both sides, and the Panthers were able to restore the lead on Aaron Ekblad's shot on goal that caught a piece of Lundell's skate after Ty Emberson couldn't get the puck out of Edmonton's zone.

"It's pretty tough," Skinner said. "They're good NHL goals. Those goals are going in on a lot of guys, I went up to Cal [Pickard] and I was like, 'Every time they score, you just hear the post.' It's just kind of their luck I guess for the night. It goes off a guy's skate perfectly onto the post and then just trickles in. Same with the first one and the third one."

However, on Edmonton's next extended possession, Leon Draisaitl wouldn't be denied by scoring a beautiful goal that pushed the German's incredible goal streak to a new career high of seven straight games.

The crowd at Amerant Bank Arena were chanting Bobrovsky's name when the puck got out of Florida's zone following a dangerous spell from the Oilers where they were able to make a line change to get McDavid on the ice with Draisaitl and hem the Panthers into their own end at the end of a long shift.

Klingberg forced a turnover in the neutral zone between the benches and got the puck to Draisaitl, who was straddling the blueline before he leaned into defenceman Gustav Forsling and flipped his 44th goal of the season under the crossbar with an amazing finish to silence the Panthers fans.

In addition to his seven-game goal streak, Draisaitl also extended his point streak to 10 games (9G, 5A), which marked the 13th time in his career and second time this season he's recorded had a double-digit point streak. The German needs one more goal to tie Mark Messier's 392 career goals for the fourth-most in franchise history.

Klingberg's two assists on Thursday night gives the Swedish blueliner multi-point outings in two of his last three games after recording a goal and an assist during Saturday's loss in Philadelphia.

THIRD PERIOD

Them's the margins when you're stuck in a slump like this one for the Oilers, who had plenty of looks to find that all-important go-ahead goal in the final frame before they got caught on a bad change near the eight-minute mark to put them in a losing position.

Viktor Arvidsson struck the corner of the crossbar and the post off a quick regroup led by Draisaitl that had the Oilers coming an inch away from taking the lead through the Swede with 14:16 left in regulation.

The Oilers came close on their second power-play opportunity of the night before needing a huge penalty kill after Klingberg was called for interference with over 11 minutes remaining, which they were able to get to end their streak of seven games giving up a goal on the man advantage.

With it looking like anyone's game heading into the final half of the third period, a mistimed change by the Oilers as the Panthers into their own zone through Anton Lundell resulted in a shooting chance opening up for Nate Schmidt at the top of the circle that he buried past Stuart Skinner for the 3-2 advantage.

"I just think about the third period just closing them down and giving them space, and they scored a key goal on them having a little bit of space when there shouldn't have been any," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They were able to get the zone and make a play when that should be eliminated."

Under three minutes later, an insurance marker from Verhaeghe off the rush by battling for his rebound against Mattias Ekholm proved to be the difference, because the Oilers were able to get one back before the final buzzer with the net empty through Zach Hyman pushing one five-hole on Bobrovsky with 3:25 left in regulation.

Edmonton had time to fight for an equalizer, but a pair of penalties to Ekholm and Perry took the wind out of their sails, allowing the Panthers to see out the final three minutes of regulation and extend Edmonton's losing streak to five.

"I think for a big chunk of the season, we weren't giving up much goals against and obviously that's a recipe for winning hockey games," Kulak said. "So we need to get back to that, and I thought we took a step in the right direction tonight. Guys are working on the backcheck. We're winning more battles, we're blocking shots, we're doing lots of good things, so I think we took a step in the right direction tonight, even though it wasn't the result."

Despite the losing result, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said it was their best effort of the road trip, but they need everyone firing on all cylinders.

"I think the guys competed really hard on the walls and around the net. I thought we had some pretty good performance by some guys, but to get out of funk like this, when things aren't going well and guys are really feeling it or really squeezing their sticks, we need everybody," the bench boss said.

"I felt that there was a few passengers. There were some guys that just didn't put in the effort that we needed. But for the most part, I think most of the guys did pretty much everything they could."

The Oilers will have one more chance on this five-game East Coast road trip to end their losing streak on Saturday night at the Lenovo Center against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"It's nice now we're heading into Carolina. They're a top team and they certainly know how to win, especially at home," Kulak said. "So the challenges are big and that's perfect for us right now."