The Edmonton Oilers secure a decisive 5-1 victory against the Florida Panthers, pushing the Stanley Cup Finals to a Game 7

Extending an improbable comeback from a three-game deficit, the Edmonton Oilers forced a deciding Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals with a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

With the best-of-seven series now level at three games apiece, the teams will return to Florida on Monday night for a final showdown for the championship.

The Oilers continued their quest to end Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought, fighting back for a chance to win it all. After falling to an 0-3 deficit, the Oilers became only the third team in Stanley Cup Final history to force a decisive Game 7, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1945.

“It’s crazy. I mean there’s a strong belief in our locker room. The fans, everybody believes in us. It’s special to play here, it’s special to play in front of this crowd to force a Game 7,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said after the game.

Edmonton opened the scoring in the first period when Warren Foegele buried a feed from Leon Draisaitl for a 1-0 lead. The Oilers then doubled their lead 46 seconds into the second period, taking advantage of a 2-on-1 with Adam Henrique finishing off a pass from Mattias Janmark.

Florida seemed to have pulled one back seconds after the face-off when Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov hammered home a rebound past Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner. However, Edmonton challenged for offside, and the goal was overturned after replay officials ruled Florida’s Sam Reinhart had preceded the puck into the offensive zone.

The NHL released a statement explaining the decision to overturn the goal: “The standard for overturning the call in the event of a ‘GOAL’ call on the ice is that the NHL Situation Room, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the On-Ice Official(s), determines that one or more players on the attacking team preceded the puck into the attacking zone prior to the goal being scored and that, as a result, the play should have been stopped for an ‘Off-Side’ infraction; where this standard is met, the goal will be disallowed.”

Despite the Panthers holding the territorial advantage in the second period, it was the Oilers who did all the scoring. Hyman gave Edmonton a 3-0 lead after converting on a breakaway with 1:40 remaining in the second period for his 16th goal of the postseason.

Hyman’s 16 goals are the most in a single postseason since Joe Sakic had 18 goals in the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs. He also became the third active player to score 70 total goals in a single season (regular season and playoffs), joining current teammate Connor McDavid (72 in 2022-23) and former teammate Auston Matthews (70 in 2023-24).

The Panthers finally got on the board early in the third period when Barkov expertly skated around Oilers defenders to cut the deficit to two goals. However, empty-net goals by Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse removed all doubt of a Panthers comeback.