SUNRISE — As Florida Panthers defenseman A.J. Greer slammed his stick against the glass, the Edmonton Oilers were celebrating behind the Panthers goal.
Just four minutes after it appeared the Panthers had a stranglehold on the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers suddenly had life.
And Edmonton has control of what has become a brilliant, emotional gut-wrenching series, especially for two fan bases 3,000 miles apart.
“We’ve had two overtime losses now that are painful and we've enjoyed the two wins,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “So, we're flat now. Best two out of three.”
Leon Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into overtime gave the Oilers a 5-4 win at Amerant Bank Arena, evening this series at two games each. Edmonton once against has home ice advantage and will play Game 5 in an energized arena, energized city an, energized province.
But as close as this series is — three overtimes, two of those ended by Draisaitl — it was that close to turning into another potential nightmare for Edmonton.
Fans were out of their seats thinking Panthers forward Sam Bennett had ended the game minutes before Draisaitl actually did, but Bennett's scorching one-time deflected off Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard’s glove and then the crossbar.
And a little more than four minutes later, the actual game-winner was scored and the entire tone of this series changed.
“Cracks the crossbar and had some chances that didn't go and it's a bad break on the overtime winner,” Maurice said.
Luck is not giving Draisaitl his due. Not when he held off Greer with his left arm while controlling the puck with his right. Draisaitl then slid the puck with one arm toward the goal and it deflected off Niko Mikkola’s shin pad and through Sergei Bobrovsky’s legs.
And nobody thought Edmonton would be in this spot when it trailed 3-0 after the first period. The Oilers were humiliated in a 6-1 Game 3 loss, the only lobsided game of the series and its coach, Kris Knoblauch, decided he had to do something to shake things up.
Knoblauch activated defenseman Troy Stetcher and forward Jeff Skinner for the first time this series. He made John Klingberg and winger Viktor Arvidsson healthy scratches, and moved Connor Brown to the top line with Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
That didn’t work out too well early with Florida dominating the first 20 minutes on two Matthew Tkachuk power play goals and one by Anton Ludell with 42 seconds remaining.
It was easy to believe Lundell’s goal demoralized the Oilers.
"We were kind of lollygagging around a little bit," Draisaitl said. "And it's certainly not the time to lollygag around, especially after getting spanked in Game 3."
Florida was on a stretch in which it scored 10 of the last 11 goals and had outscored the Oilers 9-1 in four periods played at Amerant Bank Arena.
With their season on the brink, Edmonton, who had shown no life on the road other than taking cheap shots at the Panthers late in Game 3, suddenly looked like the team that had won 13 of its last 15 games after taking a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
Whether or not that had anything to do with Knoblauch deciding to pull goalie Stuart Skinner for the second consecutive game is up for debate.
With Pickard in the game, Florida fans were chanting “we want Skinner, we want Skinner,” instead of taunting the Oilers goalie with chants of “Skin-ner, Skin-ner.”
Now, this is Pickard’s series going forward.
For the first time since this series shifted south, the Oilers showed life in the second period and the score sheet flipped with the Oilers scoring three times in the second period.
“You never want to be in a situation where you give up a three-goal lead,” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “But that's life in the playoffs and it's not supposed to be easy.”
It certainly hasn’t been, for either team. And that long flight to Edmonton probably will be tougher for Florida.
“Now it's about recovery and going into Edmonton and trying to do what we can to win a game five,” Reinhart said.
“And bring it back here.”
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Panthers allow Oilers back into Game 4, Stanley Cup Final series
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