With the win, the Oilers became just the third team in NHL history to force a Game 7 after being down 0-3 in the Final and the 10th to complete the task in any round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The other nine teams went 4-5 in Game 7.
Only one team has done what Edmonton will attempt to do on Monday in Game 7 at Amerant Bank Arena (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC), the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, the only team to complete a comeback in the Stanley Cup Final with four straight wins.
Three others have done it in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the 1975 New York Islanders, who did it in the Quarterfinals, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, who did it in the Conference Semifinals, and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings, who did it in the First Round.
The Oilers are ready to add themselves to the list.
“It’s been a [heck] of a story so far, but at the end of the day, we play to win and this is going to be the hardest game for us,” Leon Draisaitl said. “… I’m just really proud of the way we gave ourselves a chance. That’s what it’s all about. But by no means is this going to be easy, a walk in the park. This is going to be the hardest game of the series. We know that, we’re aware of that. But that being said, really, really proud to give ourselves a chance.”
And that’s what they have now. They have a chance.
The memory of the end of Game 3 feels distant now, when the Panthers had a commanding lead, when they were being lauded and crowned and assumed to be the next winners of the Stanley Cup.
The Oilers had done all they could this season, risen from the ashes and, in the very last moments, their time had run out. Their Cinderella story had ended and, for them, there was no happily ever after.
And still, they believed. The Oilers faithful believed. They had come to Rogers Place hoping and praying, their faces painted orange or blue or orange-and-blue, their heads adorned with construction helmets or wigs or hats, their throats already anticipating the scratchiness they’d feel the next morning.
That scratchiness will be there on Saturday, from the “Let’s Go Oilers” chants that started with five minutes remaining in the third period, from the “We Want the Cup” chants that followed, from the screams and the delight and the understanding that this was happening.
It was real. There would be a Game 7, and a chance at claiming history.
“We have belief. I think that’s the word I want to use,” Hyman said. “Every game you win it gets stronger, and the outside belief from other people, they start believing too. A lot of people weren’t so interested in the Final when it was 0-3, but now I’m sure a lot of people will be tuning in.
“That’s why sports is amazing, because the unthinkable can happen. We’re in a spot where we thought it could happen, when nobody else believed that it could. Now we’ve got an opportunity. That’s all you can ask for.”
