Leon Draisaitl scored another overtime goal. The Edmonton Oilers completed another comeback. And the end result is a tied Stanley Cup Final thanks to a 5-4 overtime victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday in Sunrise, Fla.
Draisaitl capped a three-point outing with an NHL-single-season-record fourth overtime winner of the playoffs, and second of the finals, thanks to a one-handed pass attempt that banked in off a defender.
The best-of-seven series returns to Edmonton for Game 5 on Saturday tied at two wins apiece. Three of the four games have gone to overtime in the rematch of last year’s finals that Florida won in seven games.
Edmonton is the first team in finals history to win after trailing 3-0 through the first period. Clubs with that edge had a 37-0 record.
“We believe no matter how bad it is, if we get over that hump of adversity, we’re going to keep pushing, gonna keep coming and eventually, it’ll break,” said Draisaitl, who joined Wayne Gretzky as the only players in NHL history to record 10 goals and 20 assists in multiple playoff runs.
Draisaitl, who won Game 1 in overtime, is the third player in NHL history with multiple OT goals in a Stanley Cup Final.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and Vasily Podkolzin all collected one goal and one assist for the Oilers, who turned a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead before watching that edge disappear in the dying seconds of regulation. Edmonton’s Jake Walman also scored, and Mattias Ekholm recorded two assists.
Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced after taking the net following the first period. Starting netminder Stuart Skinner surrendered three goals on 17 shots in the opening frame before being pulled for the second consecutive game.
Pickard has a 7-0 record in the 2025 playoffs. He saved Edmonton’s first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings before sustaining an injury in the second round against the Vegas Golden Knights, but once he again delivered when his team needed him most.
“Unbelievable to be able to step into a game like that,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “He made some huge saves, really tough saves, clutch saves.”
Matthew Tkachuk scored twice in a three-point outing while Sam Reinhart had a goal in a three-point game for Florida, which had a golden chance to take a stranglehold on the series. Anton Lundell also scored, Aleksander Barkov had two assists and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.
“If you plan for seven games, that means you’re losing three of them,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “So, take that pain and use it and come back.”
The Panthers dominated the opening period. Tkachuk scored his first of the game — and of the series — at 11:40 when he buried a shot from the left circle during a five-on-three power play, then doubled the lead five minutes later with another man-advantage marker.
Lundell made it a 3-0 affair with 41.7 seconds remaining in the period.
The Oilers responded with their best period of the series in the second frame. Nugent-Hopkins began the comeback at 3:33 during a power play, Edmonton’s ninth consecutive game with an extra-man goal, and Nurse made it a one-goal game at 12:47 of the second. Podkolzin tied the clash a couple of minutes later when he pounced on a loose puck during a flurry and found the mark.
Walman gave Edmonton its first lead of the game at 13:36 of the third period, but Reinhart’s goal with 19.5 seconds remaining in regulation forced overtime yet again.
Instead of building on their comeback, the Panthers must recover.
“The result at the end (hurts), but what are you gonna do?” Tkachuk said. “The team that recovers the fastest will have the bigger advantage on Saturday. That’s it.”
–Field Level Media
