Evan Bouchard scored the tying goal with five seconds left in regulation, and Leon Draisaitl got the game-winner just 22 ticks into overtime as the host Edmonton Oilers defeated the Florida Panthers 4-3 on Monday night.
Oilers star Connor McDavid scored a goal and had the primary assists to Bouchard and Draisaitl to add to his league-leading points total (39). Tyson Barrie scored Edmonton’s other goal.
Four goals were scored in a wild third period.
After Barrie scored, Florida scored twice. Anton Lundell tied the game 2-2 with 9:02 left in the third, and then Brandon Montour scored at 15:16 with a blast off the left post. Barrie was sprawled in the crease, but neither he nor goalie Stuart Skinner (25 saves) could stop the shot.
Edmonton challenged the goal, believing that Matthew Tkachuk batted the puck with a high stick. However, the Oilers lost the challenge.
Tkachuk also scored for the Panthers, who have lost five of their past six games (1-2-3). It was Tkachuk’s 10th goal of the season. He added an assist, and he leads the Panthers with 29 points.
Tkachuk, who played his first six NHL seasons with the Calgary Flames, a rival of the Oilers, was booed throughout the game. When he scored, he cupped his right ear as if to say he could not hear the crowd.
“It wasn’t just (booing) after the goal,” Tkachuk said in between periods. “It was constant.”
Spencer Knight, who has taken Florida’s top goalie job away from Sergei Bobrovsky, made 36 saves. Knight has started eight of Florida’s past 10 games.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov missed his second straight game due to a non-COVID illness.
Florida opened the scoring on Tkachuk’s goal with 3:49 expired. The play started with a shot by Florida’s Nick Cousins, which was blocked by Darnell Nurse. The puck bounced to Tkachuk, who scored on his second point-blank rebound attempt.
The Panthers kept the Oilers off the board in that first period despite Edmonton having a five-on-three advantage for 60 seconds.
In the second period, Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe was penalized for slashing Jesse Puljujarvi. Edmonton converted on its power play with 10:35 gone as Zach Hyman’s stretch pass connected with McDavid, who completed his breakaway by scoring on a backhander.
Barrie gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead with a rebound goal, which came with 14:42 left in the third.
Lundell, set up by a great pass from Sam Reinhart, tied the score before Montour gave Florida the lead.
McDavid took over from there with his two key passes leading to the tying and winning goals.
–Field Level Media
