‘Unacceptable’ but correctable special teams woes costly for Panthers in Game 5 of Cup Final

The Florida Panthers had the Edmonton Oilers pinned back into their own zone, cycling in forwards and extending possessions with their forecheck like they do when they’re at their best. For the first five minutes of Game 5 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, the Panthers had the look of a team ready to win its first title and then the whistle blew. Brett Kulak went into the penalty box for high-sticking and Florida got an early power play.

Right now, that’s not a good thing.

After they finished the first five minutes with a 5-3 edge in shots and 9-4 advantage in shot attempts, the Panthers made one gaffe and unraveled. Brandon Montour made a lazy pass at the blue line, Connor Brown jumped into the passing lane and took off to beat Sergei Bobrovsky on a backhanded breakaway. Edmonton struck first and never trailed on the way to a season-saving 5-3 win in Sunrise.

“Just unacceptable,” superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk said.

The short-handed goal was the second in as many games for Oilers, who now have Florida two wins away from an unfathomable championship collapse after back-to-back wins cut the Panthers’ lead in the Stanley Cup Final to 3-2.

Their latest loss was different than the rout in Game 4, though.

In Game 4, Edmonton shellacked Florida in all phases of the game. In Game 5, the Oilers won at Amerant Bank Arena almost entirely because of special teams.

The short-handed goal was only the start. Right at the end of the first period, defenseman Niko Mikkola interfered with Edmonton winger Warren Foegele, so the Oilers started the second period on a power play. With two seconds left on the man advantage, star winger Zach Hyman scored and put Edmonton up 2-0 with 18:02 left in the second. Superstar center Connor McDavid made the Oilers’ lead 3-0 a little more than three minutes later before Tkachuk finally answered for the Panthers, but Florida’s first feint at a comeback attempt stalled because of special teams again.

Forward Kyle Okposo went to the penalty box for hooking with 9:58 left in the second period and the Panthers again nearly killed off the power play, until McDavid happened. As the power play ticked away, the 27-year-old Canadian screamed down the ice, danced past forward Eetu Luostarinen, and through Mikkola and fellow defenseman Dimitry Kulikov to tee up Edmonton winger Corey Perry for an easy goal with eight seconds left on the power play.

Perry’s goal wound up as the game-winner, putting the Oilers up 4-1 with 8:06 left in the period. Florida pulled within a goal at 4-3 with 15:56 remaining, but couldn’t quite claw all the way back. Special teams were the difference.

“Special teams has got to be better,” center Sam Bennett said. “They won that battle tonight.”

When the Panthers raced out to a 3-0 series lead, they did it on the back of a suffocating penalty kill. Edmonton had a top-five power play in the regular season and the No. 1 power play in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs but started the series 0 for 12 before finally breaking through with a 5-on-3 goal in its rout of the Panthers in Game 4. Through four games, Florida held the Oilers to 1 of 16 on the power play.

In Game 5, Edmonton went 2 of 5.

“We’ve got to find a way to stay out of the penalty box,” coach Paul Maurice said. “That’ll be part of it and that’s about it.”

Even with the Cup Final suddenly becoming dicey for them, the Panthers are not panicked or even “deflated,” as Maurice put it. They felt good about the way they played at even strength — they outshot the Oilers, 32-24, and held Edmonton to six shots in the third period — and still feel good about their penalty kill, even after giving up two crushing power-play goals Tuesday.

Their track record is too good to worry about one game, especially given the firepower the Oilers have on the other side, with McDavid leading the way. Each of Edmonton’s goals felt like the result of correctable mistakes — a sloppy pass by Montour on the shorthanded goal, and goals in the dying seconds of both power plays because Florida kept penalty killers out for too long and ran out of gas — and the Panthers could win their first Stanley Cup by cleaning up this mistakes in one of the next two games.

“We’ve been good still, battling, having good sticks,” defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “We just have to keep battling, doing what we’re doing. Obviously, we believe in our kill. We’ve been good all year. They have a good power play.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2024 at 12:22 AM.