Draisaitl lifts Oilers past Panthers in OT for Game 4 win to even Stanley Cup Final 

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Leon Draisaitl came up large in overtime again, and the Edmonton Oilers regained energy and life in the Stanley Cup Final not long after it was looking bleak for them.

Draisaitl scored at 11:18 to lift the Oilers to a 5-4 win against the Florida Panthers in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

The Oilers rallied from down 3-0 in the first period to lead 4-3 late in the third period. Then they overcame a late tying goal from the Panthers before Draisaitl made NHL history by becoming the first player to score four overtime goals in a single postseason.

It was his second in this series; he also scored the OT winner in Game 1, a 4-3 victory.

The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

"It once again shows you or tells you that our group never quits," Draisaitl said. "I think we believe that no matter how bad it is if we get over that hump of adversity we're going to keep pushing, we're going to keep coming, we're going to keep coming and eventually it'll break. You don't want to be in these situations too many times, but when they happen, I think we're great at it."

Draisaitl, who also had two assists, scored the winner seconds after coming off the bench on a line change. With one hand on his stick, he shoved the puck to the net from the right face-off circle. It went off the right skate of Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola and through the legs of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

"It's incredible," Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said of Draisaitl's overtime heroics. "It's just constant. It's consistent. We always can lean on him, and he always finds a way to get those big ones."

Jake Walman had given the Oilers a 4-3 lead with 6:24 remaining in the third, scoring Edmonton's fourth consecutive goal after Florida got out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, which made Game 4 look like a continuation of the Panthers’ dominant win in Game 3.

It wasn't the case, but the Panthers still forced overtime on Sam Reinhart's game-tying 6-on-5 goal at 19:40 of the third, the second time in the series a team has tied a game in the final 20 seconds of regulation. Corey Perry scored with 18 seconds left in the third period of Game 2, but the Panthers won 5-4 on Brad Marchand's goal in the second overtime.

Perry's goal is the latest game-tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history. Reinhart's is the second-latest.

"That was a big goal for us," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said, "and, then, very similar scenario to what happened to them in Game 2."

Florida was inches away from winning it 4:30 before Draisaitl scored, but Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard got enough of his glove on Sam Bennett's shot to deflect it up and off the crossbar at 6:48.

"It's just the way the bounces go sometimes," Reinhart said.

Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and Vasily Podkolzin each had a goal and an assist, Mattias Ekholm had two assists, and Pickard improved to 7-0 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Oilers with 22 saves in relief of Stuart Skinner, who gave up three goals on 17 shots before being pulled after the first period. Skinner also was pulled early in the third period of the Oilers’ 6-1 loss in Game 3 on Monday after allowing five goals on 23 shots.

Edmonton is the seventh team in NHL history to come back from three goals down to win a game in the Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers are the first to do so since 2006, when the Carolina Hurricanes did it against them in Game 1.

Teams holding a 3-0 lead after the first period of a Cup Final game had been 26-0.

"We just push each other, and we don't want to quit on each other," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Obviously, you've got to have a tight-knit group to be able to do that, but also the right individuals to just be able to have that within themselves to never stop."

Tkachuk scored twice for the Panthers and had an assist on Reinhart's goal. Reinhart had a goal and two assists, Aleksander Barkov had two assists, and Bobrovsky made 30 saves.

"The game can break on a slot pass to Sam Bennett, crack a bar," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "Everything is dangerous all the time. So there's a mental intensity, mental toughness both teams show. The game is not going to be over until it is. You get three and four games in a Final into overtime, you’ve got two really good, evenly matched teams."

Tkachuk scored four seconds into a 5-on-3 power play to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 11:40 of the first period. He scored another power-play goal on a rebound from the right side at 16:56 to extend the lead to 2-0.

Anton Lundell made it 3-0 just 2:22 later, scoring from the slot off a pass by Carter Verhaeghe from behind the net at 19:18.

The second and third goals came on consecutive shots. Florida's three goals in the period came on seven shots in a span of 7:38.

Edmonton put Florida on the power play three times in the period.

"We wanted to come out strong tonight, but they put us on our heels early and we were kind of lollygagging around a little bit," Draisaitl said. "It's certainly not the time to lollygag around, right, especially after getting spanked in Game 3. Corey (Perry) spoke up. When he speaks up you listen and you do what he says. We did a great job of grabbing it, grabbing some momentum and keeping it."

The Oilers followed Perry's dressing-room pump-up speech between periods by turning to Pickard to start the second. They responded with three goals to send the game into the third tied 3-3.

Nugent-Hopkins made it 3-1, scoring on the power play at 3:33 with a shot from the left circle off a cross-slot pass from Draisaitl.

Nurse cut Florida's lead to 3-2 at 12:47. He wired a shot from the bottom of the left circle into the near corner, over Bobrovsky's blocker.

Podkolzin scored from the slot to tie it 3-3 at 15:05.

Florida put Edmonton on the power play three times in the period.

"It was just a mirror of the first period," Maurice said. "They got into some penalty trouble there and we took advantage of it. The second period was just the opposite."

Walman gave Florida a 4-3 lead with a one-timer from the right circle at 13:36 of the third, but Reinhart tied it 4-4 with 20 seconds left, scoring from a sharp angle on the left side off a pass from Tkachuk.

Pickard made the save of the night on Bennett, and then Draisaitl used Mikkola's skate as a springboard to an overtime goal and what is now a best-of-3 series.

"This is as good as this thing gets," Maurice said. "This is Christmas."