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EDMONTON, Alberta — Again the Edmonton Oilers came out flat against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, and the result has them on the brink of losing to them for a second year in a row.
The Oilers gave up the first two goals early, eventually fell behind by three and lost Game 5 on home ice Saturday night 5-2. They’ve been outscored 11-4 in the first period during the final.
“Well if I knew, I’d address it,” said defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who was burned on Brad Marchand’s opening goal nine minutes in. “They’re a good team over there. We’re a good team. We just have to make sure we bear down early on in games. It hasn’t happened for us, and obviously we need to go down to Florida and win a game.”
Game 6 is Tuesday night in Sunrise.
The Oilers went into Game 5 favored to take the lead and win the series, but they instead got outskated and outplayed by the defending champs. Coach Kris Knoblauch didn’t hate his team’s start, just what followed.
“I thought we got off to a great start,” Knoblauch said. “We won a faceoff and it led to a goal against. It’s tough tonight. Like two of the goals against, we won the draws and they go down and score immediately. That’s tough. Rather than being on the attack, having the puck, getting in on the forecheck at least should happen, and what turns out is we’re picking the puck out of our net.”
Knoblauch would not commit to a starter in net for Game 6 after Calvin Pickard allowed four goals on 18 shots.
“From what I saw, I think Picks didn’t have much chance on all those goals,” Knoblauch said. “Breakaways, shots through screens, slot shots. There was nothing saying that it was a poor performance.”
It was not Edmonton’s best, which seemed a bit surprising after rallying from a 3-0 deficit to win Game 4 in overtime. The response from Thursday night was not there this time around, possibly the result of expending so much energy coming back all series.
“Chasing the game over and over against a team like this, it’s very difficult,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers’ longest-tenured player. “It was a tight-checking game all the way through. They took advantage of some opportunities, and at the end of the day we didn’t and it ends up being a difference.”
The power play of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Corey Perry and Evan Bouchard went 0 for 3. Even with the penalty kill keeping Florida off the board, not capitalizing on those chances proved costly.
“We had some looks, for sure, but maybe find a way to generate some second, third looks quickly,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We’ll stay confident, stay positive, take a look and see if we can correct anything.”
NHL playoffs: /hub/stanley-cup and /hub/nhl
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