Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals lived up to and exceeded all expectations. The Edmonton Oilers won game one in overtime, 4-3, because they matched the Panthers’ speed and physicality.
The Oilers quickly jumped on the Panthers early in front of a deafening crowd at the Rogers Place Arena in Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl scored his eighth goal of the playoffs to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 1:06 in the first period. Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand tallied two straight goals for the Panthers in the first period, giving Florida a 2-1 lead after the end of the first period.
Sam Bennett, the leading goal-scorer in the playoffs, would score his 12th goal at 2:06 of the second period as the Panthers built their lead to 3-1. That would be the last goal the Panthers would score on the night, as the Oilers would be able to throttle the Panthers’ high-octane offense the rest of the game.
Viktor Arvidsson would score his second of the playoffs just over one minute after the Bennett goal at 3:17 of the second period to cut the Panthers’ lead to 3-2 after two periods.
Mattias Ekholm would get the tying goal for Edmonton in the third period at the 6:33 mark to tie the game 3-3.
In overtime, the Panthers would flip the puck out of play on a clearing attempt, which is an automatic penalty. The Oilers went on the power play, and Leon Draisaitl scored his ninth goal of the playoffs to send Oiler fans home happy.
It was surprising to see a team outplay the Panthers. That has not happened much in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Oilers were the better team in game one.
Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, who was nearly run out of town after the first two games in the LA series, was solid and made some fantastic saves to help his Oilers team get the win. Skinner talked about how big the win was and how important it was to take a 1-0 lead in the Cup final. “It’s huge,” he said. “The way that we showed up right from the get-go and the way that we continued to keep on going, even though we were down by two, that shows a lot of character by us.”
The Oilers outshot the Panthers 46-32 and doubled up the scoring chances. This year’s series has already taken a different tone from last year’s cup final. The Oilers are in the driver’s seat 1-0 this year after losing the first two games in last year’s final 2-0. Of note, the Panthers did have home ice advantage last year. This year, Edmonton is at home for the first two games.
Brad Marchand knows they are up against a very good Oilers team, and he talked about the push that the Oilers generated trailing 3-2. “I mean, they pushed,” he said. “They obviously are a very good team, and it doesn’t take much for them to score. So, not surprising the push they did. They’re a great team. We’ve just got to keep going.”
Sam Bennett talked about the Panthers lacking a killer instinct in game one. “We can learn some things from tonight, and then we’re just going to move on,” he said. “I think just not let up. Don’t sit back. We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead, and for whatever reason, we sat back tonight.”
The stage is now set for an electric game two in Edmonton on Friday night with the Oilers leading the series 1-0.