Panthers reignite offence in win over Oilers

EDMONTON — Apparently, the Florida Panthers were saving their offence for a Stanley Cup rematch against the Edmonton Oilers.

After only scoring one goal in their previous 211 minutes of play and being shut out in back-to-back road games, the Panthers exploded offensively to come back from a 4-3 deficit through 40 minutes to capture a wild 6-5 victory over the Oilers on Monday night.

“It was a weird one tonight, but I’m fine with it,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice.

“I think we really dug in. It was a mentally tough game, you get down a couple, we haven’t had comebacks this year and it was dangerous in front of both nets all night long. I’m really happy with that one, I’m really proud that we were able to stay with it, dig in.”

Niko Mikkola, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe all had a goal and an assist as the Panthers rubbed salt in the wounds of the Oilers, who they defeated in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final last season.

“They’re a good team, you can see tonight how both teams made it far,” Reinhart said. “They’ve got so much speed, so much high-end talent, they’re going to put some pucks in the net, but I thought for the most part we defended well and did what we needed to do to win tonight.”

Jesper Boqvist, Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling also scored for the Panthers (19-11-2).

“It was a lot of back and forth there, we obviously don’t like giving up five goals, there’s some stuff to clean up, especially off the rush,” Verhaeghe said. “But getting six to win the game is nice. I think we were gripping it a little bit after getting shut out twice in a row, so it was definitely nice to get a couple.

“A bunch of different guys scored, and to get a couple, a nice power-play goal too, it feels good to kind of get going. Obviously, we don’t want every game to be 6-5, but it was nice to get the win.”

Florida won despite star forward Aleksander Barkov missing his second consecutive game with an illness.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 stops in net for the Panthers.

Zach Hyman replied with a pair for the Oilers (18-11-2) who had a five-game win streak halted. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist and Kasperi Kapanen and Connor Brown also scored for Edmonton. Captain Connor McDavid led the way with three assists.

“It’s disappointing, obviously. It felt like we had it in control. We have to find a way to win that one,” McDavid said. “Playing a team that was shut out twice in a row, you knew they were going to be hungry and obviously they were. We’ve got to be better.”

Stuart Skinner recorded 22 saves for the Oilers.

“When you score five you think you’re going to win the game,” Bouchard said. “We didn’t.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.