The Edmonton Oilers are back in the race. © APA / ELSA

The NHL final will be exciting: Oilers win again

Ice hockey star Connor McDavid's hopes of winning his first title with the Edmonton Oilers live on. The Oilers won game five of the Stanley Cup finals against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday evening (local time).

June 19, 2024

From: dpa

With the 5:3 (1:0, 3:2, 1:1) Edmonton reduced the deficit to 2:3 in the NHL finals and can now equalize on Friday night at Rogers Place before the showdown in Florida three days later. "I know a lot of people have written us off," said Edmonton's head coach Kris Knoblauch after the game. The team has a strong belief and the season has been written off several times "and now we're still here in June to play hockey. We're returning to Edmonton and there's a lot to smile about."

The player of the game was Connor McDavid, who was directly involved in four of the Oilers' goals. First, Connor Brown gave the Canadian team the lead in the first period while they were shorthanded (6th). In the middle period, goal scorer Zach Hyman (22nd) with his 15th playoff goal and McDavid (25th) extended the lead. Matthew Tkachuk (27th) was able to shorten the lead for Florida, which has a great chance of winning the first title in franchise history. But Corey Perry (32nd) restored the three-goal lead after great preparatory work by McDavid. Just 14 seconds later, Evan Rodrigues scored for the Panthers.

McDavid follows in Gretzky's footsteps

In the final period, the Oilers defended their lead after Oilver Ekman-Larsson scored a goal (45th minute) and had several chances to decide the game in the final minute after Florida took their goalie Sergei Bobrovski off the ice. McDavid managed to do so with his second goal of the evening.

Connor McDavid is in top form. © APA / BRUCE BENNETT

"It was a great performance from everyone," said McDavid, "the guys really put in the effort, we had our backs against the wall and found a way." The Canadian now has 42 goal contributions in this year's playoffs, only Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have ever managed more. Leon Draisaitl, on the other hand, did not have a goal contribution and will only play a supporting role offensively in the finals after his impressive series at the start of the playoffs with 13 games in a row with at least one point of scorer. Both top stars now have at least one more game.