Closing out a series is the hardest thing to do, and the Oilers are not done yet.
Edmonton on Tuesday beat the Florida Panthers 5-3 on the road in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, forcing a Game 6 after facing a 3-0 series deficit.
Edmonton opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period. Nearly six minutes in, Connor Brown jumped the lateral defensive pass and rounded Sergei Bobrovsky for the shorthanded finish.
Florida continued to be stunned from there. Just two minutes into the second period, Zach Hyman doubled the Oilers' lead off a power play.
Then five minutes into the period, Connor McDavid got involved with a goal to log his 40th point of the playoffs. Warren Foegele and Evan Bouchard were credited with the assists.
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But just under two minutes after McDavid's goal, Matthew Tkachuk got going when Florida desperately needed a spark.
NHL
Tkachuk pounced on a botched Oilers pass then slotted the puck past Stuart Skinner.
Despite the goal, Edmonton kept capitalizing on power plays. This time it was McDavid and Bouchard who set up Corey Perry to increase the lead back to three at 4-1.
The Panthers responded again, though, this time with two straight goals. Evan Rodrigues continued his form with a goal 12 minutes into the second before Oliver Ekman-Larsson made it 4-3 just four minutes into the third.
Florida went with an empty net for the last 2:30 but couldn't find the equalizer to force overtime.
The Panthers were fortunate not to go down 5-3 shortly after when Edmonton hit the post in transition, but McDavid eventually added a fifth with 18.7 seconds to go.
Only four teams in NHL history have overturned a 3-0 series deficit. Those teams are the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings.
However, only the Leafs managed to win Game 7 to lift the trophy.
Game 6 in Edmonton is set for Friday, June 21 at 8 p.m. ET.
