Connor McDavid scored, La Bamba played in the Edmonton Oilers locker room and the Stanley Cup Final is heading back to Florida after a statement win.
McDavid scored his first goal of the series as part of a four-point performance, Stuart Skinner was spectacular in making 32 saves and the Oilers routed the Florida Panthers 8-1 in Game 4 on Saturday night, chasing Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and avoiding a sweep.
Game 5 is tomorrow in Sunrise, Florida.
Photo: Sergei Belski, USA Today
“It’s just one win,” McDavid said. “That’s all it is, whether you score eight or you score one. It’s just one win. We’ve got to go to Florida and do a job and drag them back to Alberta.”
The Panthers’ party will have to wait after a complete meltdown from a team with many players who have never been this close to hoisting the Stanley Cup. Bobrovsky was part of that, getting pulled five minutes into the second period after allowing five goals on 16 shots — more than he gave up in the first three games of the series combined.
“It had nothing to do with Bob [Bobrovsky],” Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “It was more of a wake-up call to everybody. We know he’s going to come back better than ever.”
Whether it was a last-gasp effort in front of a jacked up home crowd hoping to see the start of a historic comeback or the breakthrough coach Kris Knoblauch has been foreshadowing, the Oilers from Skinner in net out were dominant in every facet of a game they needed to win to keep the NHL season going.
It started with Mattias Janmark scoring three minutes, 11 seconds in on a two-on-one rush with Connor Brown. Janmark staked Edmonton to a two-goal lead less than five minutes later, setting up Adam Henrique for his second career goal in the Stanley Cup Final 12 years after the game-winner for New Jersey that also prevented a sweep in the final.
The odds remain long for the Oilers, given that the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs are the only team to erase a 3-0 deficit at this stage of the playoffs and only four teams in total have ever done it.
“Obviously that was a massive win, but we still know what the circumstances are,” said Dylan Holloway, who had two goals after not scoring since the second round. “We’re still down 3-1. The biggest thing for us is kind of just to forget that and use it, bottle it kind of.”
Yet their belief will certainly be tangible after breaking out offensively and building a lead rather than holding on to protect it, a quality they had in spades through the first three rounds to win the Western Conference.
Florida cutting its deficit to one on Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal midway through the first period did not cause Edmonton to fold, with Skinner making the most important save of the night on Carter Verhaeghe on a two-on-one chance and Holloway answering before intermission.
“He was great,” McDavid said of Skinner. “You talk about goaltending and needing timely saves. He made some really timely saves. That was as big a save as you’re going to get.”
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