Trocheck hat trick lifts Panthers past Oilers

EDMONTON -- Vincent Trocheck had a hat trick in the third period, and Evgenii Dadonov scored two goals to help the Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers 7-5 at Rogers Place on Monday.

Aaron Ekblad and Denis Malgin each had a goal and an assist, and James Reimer made 27 saves for the Panthers (24-23-6), who have won five of six games and are seven points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
It was Trocheck's first NHL hat trick.
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Oilers highlights]
"I thought we played well. They have a lot of skill on that team and get into a lot of run-and-gun games," Trocheck said. "We tried to slow the game down a little bit. Five goals-against isn't ideal, but I thought we played pretty well. We were able to put the puck in the net ourselves. We have been getting a lot of chances this last stretch, and it was just a matter of putting them in the net. We haven't been doing that, so it was good to have that on the road."

Pat Maroon and Connor McDavid each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers (23-28-4), who have lost four straight. Cam Talbot allowed six goals on 39 shots.
"I'd say about four of them I'd like to have back," Talbot said. "Any time you go out and score five goals, you should win a game every night. I didn't give us a chance to win tonight. I liked our battle level, our compete, our resiliency. Every time I let one in, we got one back, but I just couldn't find that next save to give us a chance."
Florida was 3-for-4 on the power play. Edmonton did not have a chance with the man-advantage.
Ekblad scored on the power play at 17:46 of the first period to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead, converting a pass off the end boards from Malgin.
Maroon tied the game 1-1 at 18:35 when he scored from in front on the rebound of a Yohann Auvitu shot.
Leon Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead on a penalty shot at 2:46 of the second period. Ekblad tripped Draisaitl on a shorthanded breakaway.
"It was kind of a weird game, it wasn't exactly a goalies duel," Reimer said. "I don't think either goalie would be too excited about being in a 7-5 game. I just kept digging in and told myself to make the next save and hang in there."

Malgin scored at 6:21 on a shot from the slot to tie it 2-2.
Drake Caggiula tipped a shot past Reimer at 9:35 to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead, but Dadonov scored 22 seconds later on shot from the slot to tie it 3-3 at 9:58.
"We definitely need to tighten it up," McDavid said. "Obviously, we've been giving up a bunch of goals and it's more how we're giving them up, breakaways and open shots in the slot, not really giving [Talbot] a chance. But definitely frustrating when we're scoring five goals and we're still losing the game. It definitely can't happen."
Trocheck gave Florida a 4-3 lead when he scored his first of the night on the power play on a breakaway 18 seconds into the third period. He scored again with the man-advantage at 6:05 to make it 5-3.
Anton Slepyshev scored at 6:53 off a rush down the left side to cut the Panthers lead to 5-4. It was his second goal in three games after he had one in his first 22 games this season.
Dadonov scored on a penalty shot at 10:46 to make it 6-4. He was slashed on a breakaway by Oilers defenseman Matt Benning.

McDavid scored at 14:58 to make it 6-5 on a setup from Maroon.
Trocheck completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with one minute remaining to make it 7-5.
"You don't see many seven-goal games out of us," Trocheck said. "I think we have only had two or three games with more than five goals this year. It was nice to see a bit of an outburst on offense. To beat a team like that and play the way we did, it was a good way to start off this (five-game) road trip."

Goal of the game

Ekblad's goal at 17:46 of the first period.

Save of the game

Reimer stopping Jesse Puljujarvi at 18:32 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Trocheck's goal 18 seconds into the third period.

They said it

"You have to have secondary scoring on any team if you want to have success, especially from the back end. I know we have the skill to do it. It is just about being consistent every night." -- Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle
"Individual responsibly has to go way up. We have to play some players, it's not like we can sit everybody out, so it has to improve." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan

Need to know

It was the first game in NHL history that each team had a player score on a penalty shot. There were 16 previous games when each team had a penalty shot. ... Trocheck had three goals in his previous 14 games. He has scored more than 20 goals in three straight seasons. ... The Oilers have allowed three power-play goals in a game five times. Their home penalty kill is the worst in the NHL (54.8 percent).

What's next

Panthers: At the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; SN, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Oilers: At the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)