GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Panthers 3 - OT (Game 1)

EDMONTON, AB – King Leon has arrived in the Stanley Cup Final, and so too have the Edmonton Oilers.

That's one down, and it came courtesy of our German superstar in sudden death to lift the Blue & Orange into a 1-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers in the rematch of last year's Final.

"I think we deserved to win tonight, but they're going to flush it," Mattias Ekholm said. "They're going to come back better for Game 2, so it doesn't really matter. It's one game. We'll just have to keep focusing on the task ahead. We know we've got three more wins to go, and it's going to be a battle."

Leon Draisaitl scored the first two goals of his career in the Stanley Cup Final, scoring less than two minutes into the first period before finishing off a 4-3 victory over the Panthers with the sudden-death winner on the power play at 19:29 of the first overtime period in Game 1 at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

Draisaitl finished off Connor McDavid's saucer pass over the stick of Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov with a one-timer under the glove of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky after Tomas Nosek was guilty of putting the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty in the final two minutes of the extra period.

"The emotions are high," Stuart Skinner said. "You're feeling really good. You're obviously ecstatic to get that win, especially in overtime with a minute left, because it's going to get harder. So the way we were able to finish in a timely manner was massive. You saw that in our faces when we celebrated."

Florida centre Sam Bennett scored twice to grow his League-leading goal total to 12, helping the Panthers build a 3-1 lead early in the middle frame before Viktor Arvidsson responded 1:17 later and Mattias Ekholm became the 20th different Oiler to score in these playoffs with the equalizer at 6:33 of the third.

"I think we're more experienced," Ekholm said. "I think those are the little details that make you stay calm and not get too excited about something that you have a lot of work left to do, so I'm happy with the way we played tonight and happy with the focus. I thought we never deviated from the plan, and obviously got a big OT win, but it's about flushing this tomorrow and getting back to work."

Winger Kasperi Kapanen was terrific with two assists, while Connor McDavid was also stellar by recording a pair of helpers to sit first in the NHL's playoff points race with 28 (6G, 22A) in 17 games. His counterpart Leon Draisaitl is second with 27 (9G, 18A) after picking up his first two goals in the Final.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner extended his playoff win streak to six games dating back to Game 2 of the Western Conference Final against Dallas, making 29 saves on 32 shots to backstop the Oilers to their 13th victory of the 2025 playoff campaign.

The Oilers will look to keep things rolling and claim win No. 14 of the playoffs on Friday night with the chance to take a 2-0 series lead in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

Expect the same grind we experienced in last year's Stanley Cup Final.

There was a lot to like from the Oilers in the opening frame of Game 1 on Wednesday, but a fast response from the Panthers midway through the period saw them equalize on a controversial tally from Sam Bennett before Brad Marchand capitalized on a failed coach's challenge to give Florida a 2-1 lead.

"As series go on and on, it's a lot more grind," Stuart Skinner said. "It's a lot more board work, it's a lot more pucks to the net, and especially when we're going into overtime, there's a lot of hockey that's played and a lot of hockey to be played. Everyone gives you something different because they're just a different team. But overall, we know how we need to play to be successful."

Leon Draisaitl scored the fastest goal to begin the Stanley Cup Final in nearly 50 years when the German collected the rebound in front from Kasperi Kapanen's deflection on Jake Walman's point shot just 1:06 into the contest, dispatching it past goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for the early 1-0 advantage.

Using their hard forecheck, Draisaitl helped turn it over in the corner with the help of Kapanen before it was thrown to the other side of the ice for Walman, whose ensuing wrist shot from the top of the Florida zone was knocked down in front by the Finnish forward to create the rebound that Draisaitl put away.

Draisaitl picked up his eighth goal of the playoffs and his first career tally in the Stanley Cup Final after producing only three assists while playing injured last year, extending his playoff point streak to seven games (3G, 11A) while Kapanen and Walman both picked up their first career helpers in the Final.

The Oilers continued their strong start by getting involved physically when Evander Kane delivered a heavy hit on defenceman Aaron Ekblad below the goal line with four-and-a-half minutes gone in the first period, as Edmonton was able to establish their game early in the opening five minutes of Game 1.

Edmonton's penalty kill prevented the Panthers from capitalizing on their opening power play that came from Corey Perry's high-sticking penalty just moments into an Edmonton man advantage, using Connor McDavid on the kill and seeing the captain hit the far post on a two-on-one with Kapanen.

But the Panthers are who they are for a reason, having the ability to grind out games despite their opponents' domination with an effective pinch from their defencemen, a heavy forecheck and a willingness to attack the blue paint at all times – even if those routes to the crease aren't necessarily done by the book.

Florida found the equalizer at 10:49 of the period in controversial fashion when Sam Bennett fell into Stuart Skinner's crease to prevent the netminder from being able to get his right pad out to make the potential save on a shot from Carter Verhaeghe in the slot, which caught a piece of him on the way through.

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch made a quick challenge for goaltender interference, claiming that Bennett's actions impeded Skinner from making the save, but the referees upheld the decision by saying that Brett Kulak was the one who tripped the Florida centre into the Oilers netminder.

"I challenge that any day, actually," Knoblauch said. "I was on the bench and I didn't even look at it again. I was getting ready for my next line, and I saw him fall in and was told he was tripped. So I feel that play happened again, I think I would challenge it. I feel what I've seen through the NHL this year on the challenges for goaltender interference that I have a lot of confidence in challenging that again. "

On the ensuing power play, defenceman Nate Schmidt connected with Brad Marchand on a diagonal pass across Edmonton's zone that the Florida newcomer and NHL veteran lifted over a sprawling Skinner to make it 2-1 for the Panthers with their second goal in a 1:41 span to take the lead.

Despite being tagged twice in quick succession, Skinner was building another strong performance that would be solidified by the end of the night.

"I felt comfortable right from the get-go, to be honest. Two quick two goals for them in the midst of a few minutes, but I felt good right from the get-go."

Despite trailing 2-1 after 20 minutes, the Oilers were doubling the Panthers in shots 14-7 and were looking to carry the positives into the middle frame.

SECOND PERIOD

After Sam Bennett notched his second goal exactly two minutes into the middle frame, the Oilers needed a greasy one to sneak by Bobrovsky before they got what they hoped for when Viktor Arvidsson snuck a slap shot under the Russian's glove only 77 seconds after the Panthers extended the lead to two.

The Panthers found themselves with a fast rush that started in their own zone when defenceman John Klingberg redirected a rimmed puck along the boards into the middle of the ice to start the quick break through Carter Verhaeghe, who quickly moved it to the activating Nate Schmidt jumping into the play.

Schmidt drew the attention of Walman and Brown before moving the puck across to Bennett, who sniped his League-leading 12th goal of the playoffs blocker side on Skinner on Florida's first shot of the frame and eighth attempt on goal over the first 23 minutes of regulation to take a 3-1 lead.

That two-goal Florida lead lasted just over a minute before Viktor Arvidsson took a drop pass from Vasily Podkolzin coming into the offensive zone and decided to uncork a clapper from the top of the left circle that managed to find a way through under the glove of Bobrovsky for a quick response.

"Big goal," Ekholm said. "Obviously huge at that moment in the game. They get the next goal, it's probably game over, so for us to get that one huge goal, it was a great shot. For a little guy, he can shoot really hard, so that's nice to see that one go in."

It was Arvidsson's second goal and sixth point of the 2025 playoffs, assisted by the seventh and 12th helpers respectively from Vasily Podkolzin and Evan Bouchard to quickly restore Florida's lead back to one goal with over three-quarters of the middle frame left to play.

After getting outshot heavily in the opening frame, the Panthers would bounce back with a 17-8 advantage in the second period and begin to really pressure the Oilers by getting more pucks towards the blue paint while getting in the grill of Skinner.

On one occasion in the period, the Oilers netminder was clipped by Verhaeghe while playing the puck outside his crease, resulting in no call from the officials before he remained undeterred in coming up with back-to-back strong saves against Nate Schmidt and Eetu Luostarinen to keep Florida's lead at 3-2.

The Oilers received their third power play late in the frame when Evan Rodrigues high-sticked Leon Draisaitl as he tried to deflect Evander Kane's saucer pass off the rush after getting behind the Florida defence, but they weren't able to find that critical PPG to trail 3-2 after two periods.

THIRD PERIOD

Man, are we glad to have Ekky back.

Mattias Ekholm said post-game that the attitude inside the locker room never dropped during the second intermission despite trailing 3-2, and his subdued celebration upon scoring the equalizer at 6:33 of the final frame showed that the Oilers feel they still have plenty of work to do.

"I think just keep going," Ekholm said of the atmosphere in the intermission. "I think we thought that there were a couple of goals there that we easily could have prevented. So at that point, I thought we were playing okay. Maybe that second period wasn't the greatest from us, but we know that this team always shows up with its back against the wall, and we did it again tonight."

After making his 2025 playoff debut in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against Dallas, the Swedish defenceman was back above 18 minutes of ice time following regulation of Game 1 after his third-period tally tied the game at 3-3 to make him the 20th different Oiler to score a goal in these playoffs.

"Massive to have him back – not only for what he does on the ice, but also off the ice. He's a big-time leader in that room," McDavid said. "Impressive to step in at the most difficult time of the year after missing time, so I can't give him enough credit for how hard he's worked to put himself in this position and the medical staff getting him back. It's been a full-team effort to get him back here to this point to score a big goal, but I thought he played great overall."

McDavid exchanged passes with Kapanen off the neutral zone regroup and entry into Florida's zone, taking the puck below the goal line before sifting a feed to Ekholm through the slot for the big blueliner to uncork a one-timer from the left circle that blew past Bobrovsky for the equalizer.

"It was a nice play by Kappy going back to Connor, and when he comes low, guys usually tend to keep their eyes on him," Ekholm said. "I tried to sneak down on the backside. I'm not sure if he sees me or not, but it's a great pass. He puts it on a platter for me, and it's kind of one of those I have to score."

McDavid's primary assist was his 21st helper and 27th point of the playoffs, while Kapanen produced the secondary assist for his second assist of the night.

The Oilers turned the momentum back on the Panthers in the final period, chasing their equalizer before looking like the team more likely to grab a late winner with a 14-2 shot advantage over the final 20 minutes.

Unlike any of the seven games during last year's Cup Final, we were heading to overtime to decide Game 1 at Rogers Place.

OVERTIME

Leon Draisaitl had no goals in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, with injuries being a factor in his inability to find the back of the net last year.

"It feels good," Draisaitl said of being healthy this time around in the Final. "I think that goes for a lot of our guys. Some of our guys got pretty banged up early last year in the playoffs, and sometimes, the fatigue just seems to set in a little bit quicker. It's nice to feel healthy and hopefully, it stays that way."

After scoring the opening goal only 1:06 into the contest, followed by the biggest goal of his career to date on the power play with 31 seconds left in the first overtime period of Game 1, the German forward has now doubled his career tallies in the Final to give the Oilers a 1-0 series advantage over Florida.

"We don't win the game tonight without him, so that tells you the story," Ekholm said. "He's one of the top two guys on our team, maybe in the league. They're phenomenal out there. You saw the plays that they were making on a couple of goals tonight, so he just looks very confident and very comfortable."

"He's doing his thing."

Kapanen nearly ended the game for the Oilers seven minutes into sudden death with an incredible solo dash through the defence for a partial breakaway, but hit the side of the post on what would've been an awe-inspiring winner from the Swedish winger, who was all over the ice on Wednesday making an impact.

"He's a player that you can kind of plug into any spot," Draisaitl said. "He kills penalties when you need him to. His speed creates a lot of confusion for the opposition. When he's confident and playing the way that he has been, he's really tough to handle. We took a chance on him and it's paid off big time for us."

Trent Frederic was wide open at the back door a few minutes later to have the chance at putting an end to overtime when he took Evander Kane's cross-ice feed that required him to take a quick one-timer that he put into Bobrovsky's chest protector instead of the open left side of Florida's net.

Evan Bouchard mirrored Kapanen's earlier move by nutmegging Aaron Ekblad with speed coming through the neutral zone that Bobrovsky stopped, pushing sudden death to its late stages where Tomas Nosek was guilty of putting the puck over the glass to set up an Oilers power play with 1:43 left in overtime.

Draisaitl delivered in a similar situation in Game 4 of the First Round against Los Angeles, when a tripping penalty to Vladislav Gavrikov on Connor McDavid resulted in the German scoring with the man advantage to put Edmonton ahead 3-1 in that series. In the Second Round against Vegas, he gave the Oilers a 2-0 series lead with the decisive OT tally in Game 2 on a two-on-one with Connor McDavid.

Cue the third – courtesy of the lineup provided by Perry and McDavid – to give Edmonton the series lead.

"You can't put a number on it," McDavid said of Draisaitl. "He's invaluable and does so many good things. Clutch face-offs, you name it. He doesn't get enough respect or credit for his defensive abilities when he digs in. There aren't many better, maybe nobody better."

It was veteran Corey Perry who took advantage of the space awarded by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, drawing Brad Marchand and Seth Jones too high near the blueline to allow the 40-year-old to complete the perfect reverse pass around the pressuring Niko Mikkola to Connor McDavid in the left circle.

The feed from Perry to McDavid opened up a two-on-one opportunity down low for him and Draisaitl against Panthers' captain and Selke Trophy-winning centre Aleksander Barkov, who was defending the front of Florida's net but couldn't stop his fellow captain from finding Draisaitl open for the one-timer.

"I'm standing over there watching this whole thing unfold, and I'm the beneficiary, but the work is done way before that," Draisaitl said. It's four terrific plays in a row – Perrs with a great play to Dave-O, and then an amazing pass over to me. But lots of great plays on that play."

Draisaitl placed his shot perfectly under the glove of Bobrovsky at 19:29 of overtime, blowing the roof off Rogers Place in celebration of a 1-0 series lead.

Edmonton improved to 8-1 at home and 4-0 in overtime during this playoff run with a 4-3 victory.

"It's tough to describe," Draisaitl said. "You're obviously locked in, and especially on the power play, you're looking to finish it. Some incredible plays made it pretty easy for me to put that home. It's a special feeling. It's great for right now, but we've got to look ahead and get ready for Game 2."