Panthers at Oilers, Stanley Cup Final Game 2 preview

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers have a chance to do to the Florida Panthers what the Panthers did to them one year ago -- win two games against them at home before the Stanley Cup Final shifts diagonally across North America.

Last year, the Panthers won Games 1 and 2 at home before also winning Game 3 in Edmonton. On Wednesday, the Oilers grabbed a 1-0 lead in this best-of-7 series, coming back from down two goals to win 4-3 on Leon Draisaitl's power-play goal at 19:29 of overtime.

Game 2 is at Rogers Place on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, MAX, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"Momentum, streaks or anything like that, I think it's important you reset," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I've said this throughout the run that no matter what happens, whether we won 6-1 or lost 5-0 or win the first game, second game, it's important that we shut it off. We enjoy or learn from that last game, but we know the opponent is going to be playing better or changing their systems or their focus or something. We just have to be prepared to play the best we can."

The Oilers had the edge in a lot of areas of Game 1, including outshooting the Panthers 46-32, with a 15-6 advantage in high-danger shots on goal. They outshot the Panthers 14-2 in the third period and 10-6 in overtime.

Edmonton generated more quality looks to test Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 42 saves and also blocked 21 shot attempts.

"For sure there always can be more, we can do a better job with that," Panthers center Aleksander Barkov said. "They're a good shot-blocking team so you know you need to find a way to get around them and spend a little more time in their zone. That's our job to find a way to do that."

Teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final series own an all-time series record of 50-5 (.909).

"We still need to get better," Knoblauch said. "We're still looking for that competitive edge. As well as we know them, I guess we're still searching for answers."

Here is a breakdown of Game 2:

Panthers: The Panthers had a 3-1 lead in the second period but were outshot 24-8 in the third period and overtime after outshooting Edmonton 17-8 in the second. They felt they sat back too much, and that they didn't move the puck out of the defensive zone quick enough. Forward Evan Rodrigues said they "punted the puck away a little bit too much and didn't stay confident in our game, and they turned it on against us." Florida is looking to make the adjustments to attack more and move out of its zone quicker and cleaner to gain more offensive zone time in Game 2. Doing that might also allow them to generate more scoring chances in the high danger area.

Oilers: Scoring on the power play in Game 1, as they did in overtime, could bode well for Game 2 and beyond. They were 0-for-3 with six shots on goal on the power play before Draisaitl's goal. It was getting to be reminiscent of arguably the biggest issue they had in the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final last year, when they were 0-for-10 with 13 shots on goal on the power play, including 0-for-3 with six shots in Game 1, a 3-0 loss. On Draisaitl's goal, they had the Panthers chasing the puck with quick passes on the strong side before finding Draisaitl at the hash marks on the weakside. They scored their first power-play goal in last year's Cup Final in Game 4 and then got two more in Game 5 to turn a potential sweep into a series that would go seven games.

Number to know: 21. The Oilers' defensemen had 21 of their 46 shots on goal in Game 1 led by Evan Bouchard's game-high seven. Ekholm scored, and Jake Walman and Bouchard each had an assist. There was clearly activation and intent to score or generate chances off the shot from the Oilers' blue line. The Panthers' defensemen accounted for eight of their 32 shots on goal. Nate Schmidt had two assists.

What to look for: When will the Oilers put Connor McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice at the same time? It's unlikely they'll start that way as Knoblauch said he likes to have Draisaitl centering his own line to get him skating and to enable the rest of the forwards to play well in their roles. They played four shifts together in the first 40 minutes of Game 1; two in the first period and two in the second. But they played together regularly in the third period and overtime, and the Oilers controlled the game. McDavid set up Ekholm for his game-tying goal just nine seconds after Draisaitl went for a change. Draisaitl scored in overtime on the power play off a pass from McDavid. The Oilers would prefer not to have to put them together because it means they're playing well and likely in the lead, but if necessary the option is there and it'll be interesting to see how the Panthers adjust, if they can, if or when it does happen.

What they are saying

"You see more people outside the rink (in Edmonton) than I guess you would in December when we play here. The energy starts early before games like most rinks and cities do at this time of year or in playoffs in general. It's something as a road team, you can definitely feed off of. It's that us against the 20-plus guys you're playing against, the 20,000 that are in the rink, the 20,000 that are outside the rink. It's just us against everybody. That's what makes playing on the road so fun and rewarding when you can get a win." -- Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk

"Every game is going to be a challenge, especially against the team we're playing. I watched a lot last year when these guys were playing. I think we're playing against a better Florida team than they did last year." -- Oilers defenseman Jake Walman, who was acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on March 7

Panthers projected lineup

Evan Rodrigues -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand

Jesper Boqvist -- Tomas Nosek -- Jonah Gadjovich

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones

Nate Schmidt -- Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky

Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Uvis Balinskis, Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Nico Sturm

Injured: A.J. Greer (lower body)

Oilers projected lineup

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Corey Perry

Evander Kane -- Leon Draisaitl -- Kasperi Kapanen

Trent Frederic -- Adam Henrique -- Connor Brown

Vasily Podkolzin -- Mattias Janmark -- Viktor Arvidsson

Mattias Ekholm -- Evan Bouchard

Darnell Nurse -- Brett Kulak

Jake Walman -- John Klingberg

Stuart Skinner

Calvin Pickard

Scratched: Joshua Brown, Cam Dineen, Ty Emberson, Max Jones, Derek Ryan, Jeff Skinner, Troy Stecher

Injured: Zach Hyman (dislocated wrist)

Status report

The Panthers held an optional morning skate that included none of the regulars, but coach Paul Maurice said Florida will dress the same lineup it used in Game 1. ... Greer remains out, but the forward is expected back for Game 3 on Monday. ... The Oilers held a full skate and are not expected to make any lineup changes from Game 1.

NHL.com independent correspondent Gerry Moddejonge contributed to this report