Matthew Tkachuk on Tuesday night took off at full speed from basically center ice, chasing a puck that had sailed over his head and was heading directly toward an empty net.
He dove. He outstretched his stick. He swatted and barely, just barely, knocked the puck away to keep the Florida Panthers’ hope of forcing overtime alive. The problem was, the next person who got to the puck was Connor McDavid — who scored to put the game away.
Such was how Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final went for the Panthers. Even when they were good, it was not good enough, and another long flight to Alberta awaits, with this title series suddenly looking tight.
Photo: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY
The Panthers gave up two power-play goals and a shorthanded score, got into a 3-0 hole before trying to rally and wound up falling 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the title series. It was the second consecutive time Florida were thwarted in a chance to win the Cup, after an 8-1 embarrassment in Edmonton over the weekend.
Game 6 is there tomorrow night.
“I’m not pumping tires. I’m not rubbing backs. I don’t think we need that at all,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Everybody feels probably exactly the way I do right now. I’m not feeling deflated. Neither’s the hockey team. They’re not feeling deflated. Little grumpy.”
Maybe a lot grumpy.
“We’re going to turn the page,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “We’re going to learn from this one.”
Rodrigues and Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for Florida, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored for the Panthers.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for Florida, who would see their 30-years-and-counting wait for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title last at least three more days.
“We get another crack at it on Friday,” Tkachuk said.
McDavid had two goals and two assists to become the first player in NHL history to have back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup Final, and Evan Bouchard added three assists for Edmonton. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry also had goals for the Oilers, while Stuart Skinner stopped 29 shots.
McDavid said it was a total team effort.
It was, but it was also another superhuman effort from McDavid, the game’s best player who is doing things never before done in the title series.
The four points gave McDavid 42 in these playoffs, the fourth-most in a single post-season in NHL history. The only players ahead of him are the ones everyone would expect: Wayne Gretzky had 47 points in 1985, Mario Lemieux had 44 in 1991 and Gretzky had 43 in 1988.
McDavid would have at least one — and, he hopes, two — games to add to that total. If there is a Game 7, it would be in Sunrise on Monday night.
“Anytime you’re in the same realm as those two, it’s always a good thing,” McDavid said.
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