The last time the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers faced off in the National Hockey League, the Panthers won 5–1 on home ice in Sunrise, Florida, to lift the 2025 Stanley Cup — ice hockey‘s oldest trophy.
That was on 17 June 2025. On Saturday (22 November), 159 days later, the teams met again at the same Amerant Bank Arena with a vastly different outcome.
It was another high-scoring game, with nine shots finding the net. This time, it would be the Canadian team that went home happy, tallying a 6–3 win to close out a tough seven-game road trip at .500 (3-3-1).
Two goals from Jack Roslovic, the first after just 25 seconds, and one from Mattias Ekholm had given the Oilers a 3–1 lead by the end of the first period, Anton Lundell getting the Panthers’ score.
Although the Panthers closed to within one in the second off the back of goals from Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Reinhart after Vasily Podkolzin had made it 4–1 to the Oilers, that was as close as the defending Cup champions would get in this rematch.
Connor McDavid scored with 2:40 left in the game on an empty net before Matt Savoie restored Edmonton’s three-goal lead 27 seconds later.
Two men named to preliminary rosters for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 kept their points streaks alive in the game. Germany’s Leon Draisaitl, who assisted on Podkolzin’s goal, and Reinhart (Canada) each tallied a point for the sixth straight game. Draisaitl has four goals and six assists in that span, while Reinhart has five goals and five assists.
The result moves the Oilers onto 25 points (10-9-5), just outside a wild card spot in the Western Conference on a tiebreaker. The Panthers remain on 23 points (11-9-1), seventh in the Eastern Conference Wild Card standings but just two points out of a wild card position.
