The Edmonton Oilers will try to go up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup finals after rally from a two goal deficit to win in overtime on Wednesday in Game 1. Leon Draisaitl, who led the NHL in goals with 52 in the regular season, scored his second of the night on a perfect pass from Connor McDavid to put the Oilers up in the best of seven series. Since losing their first two games of the playoffs, the Oilers have won 13 of their next 15 games heading into the crucial Game 2 on Friday. The puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday night from Rogers Place in Edmonton. The Oilers are -128 favorites
Stanley Cup Final
Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers
Game 1: Oilers 4, Panthers 3 (OT) | Recap
Game 2: Friday, June 6 | at EDM | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
Game 3: Monday, June 9 | at FLA | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
Game 4: Thursday, June 12 | at FLA | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
*Game 5: Saturday, June 14 | at EDM | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
*Game 6: Tuesday, June 17 | at FLA | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
*Game 7: Friday, June 20 | at EDM | 7 p.m. | TNT, truTV
Game 1 Recap
Just 66 seconds into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Leon Draisaitl scored to give the Edmonton Oilers a 1-0 lead over the Florida Panthers. Over an hour of game time later, Drasaitl scored the overtime winner to seal a 4-3 win and send the Edmonton fans home happy.
Draisaitl got the game started with the fastest goal to start a Stanley Cup Final since 1976. He cleaned up a rebound off the pad of Sergei Bobrovsky and blew the roof off Rogers Place. That was a little foreshadowing because Draisaitl and Connor McDavid would make their impacts felt throughout the game.
After Draisaitl’s first goal, the defending champion Panthers responded by scoring three straight to take a 3-1 lead just two minutes into the second period with noted pest Sam Bennett registering two of them.
But the Oilers never wavered, and they chipped away at the lead and eventually tied the game when McDavid found Mattias Ekholm with a gorgeous dish into the high slot. On the game-winner, that dynamic duo teamed up on the power play in overtime. The Panthers penalty killers got a little too high in the zone, and that created a 2-on-1 down low for McDavid and Draisaitl. McDavid slipped a pass across to Draisaitl, who blasted a one-timer past Bobrovsky to win the game.
Prior to Wednesday night, the Panthers were 31-0 when leading at the end of the first or second period in playoff games under Paul Maurice. All it took was two of the best players in the world to end that streak.
Florida has to feel like it let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers in this one. Bennett continued his red-hot postseason with two more goals, and Bobrovsky made some big saves, but the Panthers didn’t get enough contributions from the rest of the lineup.
Teams that win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final have gone on to win the Cup 76.5% of the time in NHL history, so the Oilers have a leg up in that department. The Panthers will try to reverse that trend, starting with a Game 2 win on Friday night.
