PREVIEW: Oilers at Panthers

The Edmonton Oilers close out their seven-game road trip on Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena with a rematch of the 2024 & 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Panthers

SUNRISE, FL – Looking to put together another good effort to end this marathon road trip.

The Edmonton Oilers will finish their long seven-game road trip on Saturday with a rematch of the 2024 & 2025 Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers, hoping to build off some of their defensive success from Thursday's 2-1 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning against their playoff rival.

After forward Trent Frederic fired home the opening tally just 1:32 into the first period, scoring his first goal in 19 games, the Oilers locked in defensively over the next 55 minutes to protect their slim 1-0 lead against the Lightning, with some stellar goaltending from Calvin Pickard highlighting their efforts in their own end that were put to the test during a final frame where Tampa outshot Edmonton by a 14-4 margin.

Edmonton's penalty kill went 3-for-3 to improve to 19-for-21 over their last eight games, while Pickard's teammates were doing everything they could to try and get their netminder a much-deserved victory for the way he was playing on Thursday by making 33 total saves – with none bigger than his incredible diving stop against Brandon Hagel before 30 seconds had even passed in the third period.

"I feel like it's probably the most shots I've had all year, but probably the least amount of big chances that we gave up," he said. "So it was really good. We were staying tight, good in the middle, the penalty kill was good, and we had good sticks. They let me see the pucks, and we kept the goals against down."

Taking the pressure upon himself to put forward a strong performance on Thursday, Pickard went above and beyond against the Lightning by looking unbeatable and setting his season-high in saves, which was the fourth-most he's ever put forward in a start for the Oilers over three seasons in Oil Country.

"Ever since I got here, I've been game by game, and it's the hardest league in the world to get into, and it's even harder to stay in," he said. "So, a really good game for me tonight, and I need to build off that. I need to keep throwing that game out there."

But playing the second of a back-to-back, the Oilers were pressed by the Lightning in the final 20 minutes as they attacked in waves, eventually conceding the equalizer with 2:52 remaining on a cut to the inside by forward Nick Paul off a regroup before he roofed his effort on Pickard to send it to overtime.

"There are a lot of things to be happy about," Knoblauch said. "We've been talking about how to play better defensively, better awareness, and just digging in on those areas. I saw a lot of good defensive plays tonight, and obviously, Pickard had a heck of a game -- especially in the third period.

"But you can see a fragile group in the third period. We were a shell of ourselves, not wanting to make a mistake and holding on. When you hold on, you just have to defend over and over again. Unfortunately, they scored that tying goal, and it was too bad because it was a good effort from a lot of guys.

During overtime, it was looking like Jack Roslovic would have the easy finish as the third man in following up a shot from Darnell Nurse on a two-on-one with Zach Hyman, but an unbelievable toe save by Andrei Vasilevskiy sent the Lightning back the other way on an odd-man rush of their own to end the game.

After Vasilevskiy made the vital save, Jake Guentzel beat Roslovic in a foot race to get open to accept Darren Raddysh's pass and go five-hole on Pickard at 1:43 of overtime, providing the heartbreaker in a 2-1 defeat for the Oilers after defending heroically for much of the final 58 minutes of regulation.

"I really liked how we played," Pickard said post-game. "It's not the easiest back-to-back coming from Washington, but I feel like we do things the hard way. We like to do it the hard way. Right from the get-go, we had a good game. But obviously, in the third, they kind of took it to us. They're a great team as well."

"They had some good looks, but a very unfortunate result."

The Panthers had the opposite fortune of the Oilers on Thursday, holding on for a 1-0 shutout win over the New Jersey Devils for their fourth win in their last five games after shooting out the lights in their previous contest on Monday in an 8-5 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves for his 51st career shutout, and Sam Reinhart scored Florida's lone goal and has recorded eight points (4G, 5A) during a five-game point streak.

“The team was great,” Bobrovsky said. “You’re not going to have a shutout without the teammates in front of you. They did a great job in front -- offensively and defensively.”

The Panthers are 8-2-1 this season at home compared to 3-6-0 on the road, and they'll be up to the challenge for Saturday's rematch of the 2024 and 2025 Cup Finals – both of which they came out winners to win their first-ever Stanley Cup two seasons ago before defending their crown this past year.