PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Panthers (Game 5)

With the series tied 2-2, the Edmonton Oilers will return to Rogers Place to host the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 6:00 p.m. MDT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Panthers (Game 5)

EDMONTON, AB – Back to Alberta to begin a best-of-three series for the Stanley Cup.

This is the stuff of legend.

The 2025 Stanley Cup Final has already been nothing short of epic, made even more incredible by the Edmonton Oilers overturning a three-goal deficit to the Florida Panthers in the first period of Game 4 on Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena, evening the series with a 5-4 victory in overtime.

With the series tied at 2-2, it becomes a best-of-three to decide who'll lift the Stanley Cup, and the Oilers will look to utilize home ice as they prepare to host the Panthers in Game 5 on Saturday at Rogers Place for what's expected to be another instant classic in the electric atmosphere generated from ICE District.

Need we say more?

“I'm sure there's going to be some more exciting hockey,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch added. “You look at these four games, and all have been nail-biters. They've been going back and forth. Either team could have won, and I don't think there's a better place to experience a hockey game or for a hockey game to be played than in Edmonton.

“The atmosphere there with the fans, the excitement in the building, but also around the city, I think it's great and I think it's well-deserving that it can be played in Edmonton.”

The Oilers became the second road team in Stanley Cup Final history after the 1919 Montreal Canadiens to come back from a three-goal deficit and win, and the seventh team to record multiple multi-goal comeback wins in a single Stanley Cup Final in their monumental 5-4 comeback victory in Game 4.

In the first period, Edmonton was guilty of continuing their parade to the penalty box from their disappointing 6-1 defeat in Game 3, when they took four minor penalties in the opening 20 minutes before finishing the night with 11 total infractions, allowing power-play goals on three of them.

On Thursday, three more penalties in a five-minute span of the opening frame for the Oilers – including 1:02 of five-on-three for the Panthers – saw forward Matthew Tkachuk score just four seconds into the two-man advantage with a wrist shot around the screen and under Stuart Skinner's blocker to make it 1-0.

After Tkachuk added another PPG on Mattias Ekholm's high-sticking penalty later in the period, forward Anton Lundell made it 3-0 when Carter Verhaeghe's hard forecheck against Troy Stecher forced a turnover below the goal line that led to the Panthers taking a three-goal lead into the first intermission.

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch made the difficult decision to lift Stuart Skinner for Calvin Pickard to begin the second period despite him not being at fault for their position after 20 minutes, electing to inject Pickard who was 6-0 in these playoffs before his injury in the Second Round to try and spark the group.

"It was unfortunate for Stu to be pulled there," Knoblauch said. "Our team was flat. We didn't give him any opportunities. We had three penalties in the first period, two high sticks, and we needed to change things up, and the change was great. The way Picks played, he made some really big saves. I don't think there were many shots in the second period, but there were a couple of really good quality ones that he came up with."

During the intermission, it was the 40-year-old Corey Perry – a veteran of seven trips to the Stanley Cup Final and five in the past six seasons – who rallied his teammates in the dressing room by reminding them of the moment they find themselves in and what it was going to take to respond in the next period.

"It was just a bit of a wake-up," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Look where we are and the position we're in. Obviously, that's a guy that everybody in that room respects so much. He's been through it all, and so when he speaks up like that, it means a lot. I thought we did a good job responding."

"He's been in the league for over 20 years, so he's been through everything, and nothing can faze him. That's kind of rubbing off on us."

The Oilers focused on getting back to their game and started earning penalties by moving their feet, turning a slashing call against Sam Bennett on an Evan Bouchard breakaway into a power play that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finished with a shot under the bar past Sergei Bobrovsky 3:31 into the second period.

Pickard made his biggest of 10 saves in the middle frame with a one-on-one stop against Anton Lundell after Jake Walman gave up the puck, getting set quickly in his crease and reacting to the Panthers forward's fast shot with his blocker to help the Oilers avoid giving back the goal they'd just worked for.

"I think when I first got in there in the second period, we really started playing well, and there wasn't much action there for about six or seven minutes," he said. "I made that save, and it kind of gets you feeling good. After that, it was pretty steady. They had some looks, but we had a ton of looks, and our resolve was fantastic."

Darnell Nurse went high again on Bobrovsky almost half a period later with a great shot from a tight angle that went clean over his right shoulder before the defenceman's activation down the wall off an offensive-zone faceoff with under five minutes left in the frame led to Vasily Podkolzin tying the game at 3-3.

In the third period, a heavy forecheck from the trio of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Kasperi Kapanen and Mattias Janmark resulted in Selke Trophy winner Aleksandar Barkov coughing up the puck in the Panthers' zone, resulting in Kapanen teeing up Jake Walman a rolling puck that he blasted past Bobrovsky for Edmonton's first lead of the series since the first period of Game 2.

But in a series as dramatic as this one, it was only fitting that Sam Reinhart scored the second-lastest tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history, converting at six-on-five off an in-tight passing play with Tkachuk with 19.5 seconds left in regulation, just one second shy of Corey Perry's record in Game 1 of the series.

Having come back before Florida's late equalizer, the Oilers showed that same resilience as they prepared for their third trip to overtime of the Cup Final.

"It's the same mentality as when we were down 3-0," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We're just going to put our heads down, keep going and keep chugging along here. We're just not going to quit on each other."

Pickard, who's been terrific for the Oilers in these playoffs with a 6-0 record prior to his injury in Game 2 of the Second Round, made a game-defining save on Sam Bennett in overtime to get enough of his glove to his dangerous chance to send it redirecting off the crossbar.

The netminder's critical save on Bennett was vital setting up what was to come, but Pickard still felt sympathy for his counterpart in Skinner after he'd played a solid opening period but was taken out after allowing three goals on 17 shots, becoming the victim of a move by Knoblauch to try and spark his group.

"Obviously, when I got hurt, it was frustrating. Things were going pretty well, and then Skins hopped in there and played great," Pickard said. "I felt for him. He came ready to play and made some big saves early. We just didn't have it as a team early, and I think Knobber just wanted to switch it up. If he were playing behind our team in the second, third and overtime, he would have done what I did, too."

Pickard sat at the podium post-game on Thursday alongside Leon Draisaitl, who ended Game 4 at 11:18 of overtime with his record fourth OT goal in a single playoff after poking at the puck on a quick rush and having it go off Niko MIkkola's foot and five-hole under Bobrosky to seal the 5-4 victory.

"He's as clutch as it gets," Pickard said of Draisaitl. "Obviously, it was a game of bounces. They got one at the end of the end of the third there, and we got the last one. But he's been playing great, always scores big goals at big times, and we're going home with momentum."