Stanley Cup Final: Draisaitl, Oilers win Game 4 in OT to knot series

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer

SUNRISE, Fla. — Falling behind three goals after 20 minutes, the Edmonton Oilers scored three of their own over the next 20 to erase their deficit. They took the lead, only to give up the tying goal to the Florida Panthers in the final seconds of regulation and send another game between the hockey heavyweights to overtime.

Riding the waves of emotion through what’s turning into an epic showdown in the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers beat the Panthers, 5-4, in Game 4 on Thursday night to tie the series on Leon Draisaitl’s NHL playoff-record fourth OT goal.

“Games like that, it’s exhausting – it’s a roller coaster,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Two good teams playing as hard as they are, playing the right way. Obviously with what’s on the line, it’s stressful. There’s a lot on the line, but it is fun and I think our guys are having fun, enjoying this moment.”

They’re enjoying it much more tied at two games apiece than they would have down 3-1 and on the brink of losing to Florida in the Final for a second consecutive year. They go home to Western Canada for Game 5 on Saturday night all even.

“Better than it could have been, but obviously a long way to go,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scored the Oilers’ first goal in Game 4. “We’re just excited to get back home and play in front of our fans, and Saturday night is going to be pretty fun.”

Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT – the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams – came after Jake Walman put Edmonton ahead with six minutes left in the third period and Sam Reinhart tied it for Florida with 19.5 seconds left.

“That’s what we do: We’re a resilient group,” said Draisaitl, who also scored to win Game 1 in OT. “We’re never going to quit no matter what. We’ll take it and go home.”

The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the Final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the Final, the last time in 2006.

Edmonton fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a backbreaker.

Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured, and he stopped the first 18 shots he faced with some more big saves coming in overtime before Draisaitl scored.

Pickard’s play paved the way for the once-in-a-century comeback, with Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and Vasily Podkolzin all scoring in the second. The Oilers held on, went ahead on Walman’s goal and dealt with more adversity when Reinhart sent it to overtime – the first Final since 2013 with three of the first four games needing extra hockey and the fifth all time.

“There were chances everywhere,” Tkachuk said. “Both teams had good looks. I mean, one of their players it hits off a skate and hits the post. We got lucky there. It’s a game of inches.”

PANTHERS SQUANDER EARLY LEAD

What initially looked like an easy victory that would put Florida one win away from clinching a second straight Stanley Cup title turned into a huge collapse.

“We carried play in the first, they carried it in the second,” Tkachuk said. “Special teams were good for us in the first, special teams were good for them in the second. I think it was tighter than a 3-0 period at the start for us. And they clearly took control of play in the second. After two (periods) it’s even, and it probably should have been. So, it doesn’t matter how you how you start, you’ve got to treat it as zeros at the start of a period.”

It has been that kind of series so far – an evenly matched, back and forth heavyweight fight between two extremely experienced, resilient teams. It is just the eighth Cup Final – and fourth in the expansion era (since 1967-68) – to have three or more games require overtime and there are at least two games left.

Despite the loss, Florida coach Paul Maurice said he could appreciate the competitiveness.

“I think we focus on sometimes the mistakes that get made by good players at times,” Maurice said, “and you miss some of the heart and soul and the intensity of it. It’s so fast. Every board battle, everything can turn into something. … Everything is dangerous all the time. So there’s a mental intensity, a mental toughness I think both teams show that the game’s not going to be over until it is.”

Reinhart nearly saved the collapse with his tying goal late in regulation – the second-latest tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history. The record was set earlier in the series by Edmonton’s Corey Perry in Game 2.

Florida had never squandered a 3-0 lead in the postseason, but Tkachuk said he felt the Panthers weren’t connected. Reinhart added he felt they were playing too passively.

“I think we were watching the play develop,” Reinhart said, “as opposed to playing on our toes, and that’s obviously how they got back in the game.”

The good news for the Panthers is they’ve responded well this postseason following letdowns.

Florida seems to relish the moments when the pressure is the highest. That’s what the experience of playing in their third straight Stanley Cup Final has taught the Panthers. And it’s a quality that will be needed if they’re going to regroup from Game 4’s disappointing finish.

“The more times you go through it, the better,” Reinhart said. “It’s never going to be perfect. This time of year, we’ve been here before. We’ve been through it. So … it’s about recovering for Game 5.”