The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers will go to a decisive seventh game after the Oilers dominated the completely disjointed Cats by a 5-1 count at raucous Rogers Place in Game 6.
Florida needed to get off to a fast start and score first. They did neither as Edmonton held them to a season-low two shots on goal in the first period.
A neutral zone turnover trying to enter the offensive zone caused by Carter Verhaeghe, who was utterly awful all night, put a lazy pass into Aleksander Barkov’s skates led to an Oilers counter that saw Brett Kulak headman to Leon Draisaitl. Draisiatl carried down the middle of the ice and then fed Warren Foegele backdoor for the opening goal at 7:27. Foegele got mixed up with Aaron Ekblad high in the zone. He got up ahead of Ekblad and went to the net to finish off the rush. Sloppy..
Bobrvosky was sharp the rest of the period to keep his listless team down by a goal, but a grevious mental mistake from “Playoff” Sam Bennett cost the Cats another goal 46 seconds into the middle frame.
Bennett didn’t support a pinching Gustav Forsling and after Mattias Ekholm sent a long outlet pass up the left boards to Mattias Janmark, Janmark crossed to Bennett’s wide-open man, Adam Henrique, and he finished off the 2-on-1 by shooting behind Bobrovsky and put the puck off the post and in. All too easy…
The Panthers appeared to get the goal back ten seconds later, with a determinded Barkov converting his own rebound, but Kris Knoblauch wisely challenged the razor thin margin on the play for being offside (Verhaeghe was a millisecond too slow getting the puck over the line) and the goal, and what little will a lot of the Panthers were playing with, was wiped away.
A bad decision by Forsling, who tried to one-time a puck that bounced to him off the boards, led to a three-goal deficit. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins easily blocked the shot and Zach Hyman sped away on a breakaway and beat Bobrovsky on the backhand between his arm and leg pad with 1:40 left in the period.
Barkov would finally get the Panthers on the board 1:28 into the third. After a good step-up by Dmitry Kulikov, Verhaeghe backhanded the puck to Barkov near the right boards and the captain weaved his way in on goal and using his long reach, deposited the puck past Skinner’s outstretched leg. Filthy, Sasha, filthy!
Unfortunately, Florida’s push after the goal wasn’t anything to write home about. Skinner had his blocker in the right place to knock away a high-quality chance from the low slot by Sam Reinhart and made six other saves to backstop the confident Oilers to a third straight win.
Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse tacked on empty-net goals, with Skinner picking up a helper on Nurse’s second of the series, to complete the scoring. Skinner became the first goalie in NHL history to get a point when facing elimination in the Final.
Usually one throws out the ENGs when analyzing the aftermath of a game, but Edmonton’s made the score feel righter than considering it 3-1.
The Panthers are getting out-executed, outcoached and most importanty outworked. They seem to have no answers for what the Oilers are doing, and coming out so flat for this game is simply inexcusable. Aside from a strong performance for Barkov and keeping Connor McDavid under wraps, there was little to nothing to like about Florida’s Game 6.
Edmonton will be looking to make history on Monday night, while the Panthers, with the way things are falling apart at the seams at this point, will be looking for a miracle.
Stanley Stuff
- The offensively inept Panthers, who have only scored five times in the last three games, had more shots blocked (22) than they put on Stuart Skinner. Skinner finished with 20 saves on 21 shots.
- First Star Warren Foegele scored the game-opening goal and drew the only assist on Darnell Nurse’s empty-netter which closed it. Foegele was the only player to produce a multipoint effort in Game 6. Foegele is currently riding a four-game point streak.
- The Panthers held Connor McDavid without a point or shot on goal. With the Oilers in control throughout, Kris Knoblauch wisely limited McDavid to 18:58 TOI.
- It took 23 games for Dmitry Kulikov to pick up his first point of the playoffs. Kulikov drew the secondary assist on Aleksander Barkov’s eighth of the postseason.
- Sergei Bobrovsky faced 19 shots and gave up 3 or more goals for the fourth straight game. The Panthers will need Bobrovsky at his best in Game 7.