With a 5-1 victory against the Florida Panthers on Friday night, the Edmonton Oilers extended their incredible comeback from a three-game deficit and forced a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals.
With the best-of-seven series tied at three games apiece, the teams will meet again in Florida on Monday night in a championship game.
The Oilers weren’t done trying to break Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought, and they rallied back for a chance to win it all. After falling behind 0-3, the Oilers became only the third club in Stanley Cup Final history to force a crucial Game 7, following the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1945.
“That’s insane. I mean, there is a great conviction in our locker room. The supporters—everyone believes in us. “It’s special to play here and in front of this crowd to force a Game 7,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said after the game.
In the first period, Edmonton took a 1-0 lead when Warren Foegele buried a feed from Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers subsequently increased their lead 46 seconds into the second period when Adam Henrique finished off a feed from Mattias Janmark for a 2-0 edge.
Florida seemed to get one back seconds after the face-off, when Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov slammed home a rebound past Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner. However, Edmonton protested for offside, and the goal was overruled after replay officials determined that Florida’s Sam Reinhart preceded the ball into the offensive zone and was offside prior to the scoring.
The NHL issued a statement explaining the decision to overturn the goal: “The standard for overturning the call in the event of a ‘GOAL’ call on the ice is that the NHL Situation Room, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the On-Ice Official(s), determines that one or more Players on the attacking team preceded the puck into the attacking zone prior to the goal being scored and that, as a result, the play should have been stopped for a ‘Of
Read more: Connor McDavid, by the numbers, and the historical significance of his 2024 playoff run
Despite the Panthers’ territorial edge in the second period, the Oilers scored all of the goals. Hyman gave Edmonton a 3-0 lead with 1:40 left in the second period, finishing on a breakaway for his 16th postseason goal.
Hyman’s 16 goals are the most in a single postseason since Joe Sakic scored 18 in the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs. He also became the third active player to reach 70 goals in a single season (regular season and playoffs), behind current teammate Connor McDavid (72 in 2022-23) and former teammate Auston Matthews (70 in 2023-24).
.The Panthers eventually got on the board early in the third period, when Barkov deftly glided around Oilers defenders for a goal that reduced the margin to two goals. However, empty-net goals by Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse eliminated any possibility of a Panthers comeback.
After a 2-9-1 start to the season, the Oilers found themselves at the bottom of the NHL overall standings.
“I think it’s simply an unbreakable confidence; we’ve spoken about it a lot, and no matter what happened this year, we always thought we’d make it through. Regardless of how grave the situation is, we believe we have a shot.
It was a lengthy season of struggle that prepared us to fight back, but the next one will be the most difficult,” Hyman added.
Four teams have rebounded to win a series after falling down 0-3 in NHL playoff history, but only once has a reverse sweep occurred in the Stanley Cup Final—more than 80 years ago, when the Maple Leafs defeated the Red Wings in 1942. NHL clubs that have led 3-0 in a series have a 206-4 record in league history.
If they manage to come back and win the series, the Oilers would finally break a three-decade Stanley Cup drought for Canadian teams (the Montreal Canadiens were the last to hold the Cup in 1993).
