SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk took off at full velocity from mainly heart ice, chasing a puck that had sailed over his head and was heading immediately towards an empty web.
He dove. He outstretched his stick. He swatted and barely, simply barely, knocked the puck away to maintain the Florida Panthers’ hope of forcing time beyond regulation alive. Downside was, the following one who bought to the puck was Connor McDavid — who scored to place the sport away.
Such was how Recreation 5 of the Stanley Cup Ultimate went for the Panthers. Even after they had been good, it wasn’t adequate. And one other lengthy flight to Alberta awaits, with this title collection instantly wanting very tight.
The Panthers gave up two power-play targets and a short-handed rating, bought right into a 3-0 gap earlier than making an attempt to rally and wound up falling 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Recreation 5 of the title collection on Tuesday night time. It was the second consecutive time Florida was thwarted in an opportunity to win the Cup, after an 8-1 embarrassment in Edmonton over the weekend.
Recreation 6 is there on Friday night time.
“I’m not pumping tires. I’m not rubbing backs. I don’t assume we want that in any respect,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice stated. “Everyone feels most likely precisely the way in which I do proper now. I’m not feeling deflated. Neither’s the hockey crew. They’re not feeling deflated. Little grumpy.”
Possibly so much grumpy.
“We’re going to show the web page,” ahead Evan Rodrigues stated. “We’re going to be taught from this one.”
Rodrigues and Tkachuk every had a objective and an help for Florida, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson additionally scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 photographs for Florida, which can see its 30-years-and-counting await the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title final at the least three extra days.
“We get one other crack at it on Friday,” Tkachuk stated.
McDavid had two targets and two assists to develop into the primary participant in NHL historical past to have back-to-back four-point video games within the Stanley Cup Ultimate, and Evan Bouchard added three assists for Edmonton. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry additionally had targets for the Oilers whereas Stuart Skinner stopped 29 photographs.
McDavid stated it was a complete crew effort. It was, but it surely was additionally one other superhuman effort from McDavid, the sport’s greatest participant who’s doing issues by no means earlier than accomplished within the title collection.
The 4 factors gave McDavid 42 in these playoffs, the fourth-most in a single postseason in NHL historical past. The one gamers forward of him are those everybody would anticipate: Wayne Gretzky had 47 factors in 1985, Mario Lemieux had 44 in 1991 and Gretzky had 43 in 1988.
McDavid can have at the least one — and, he hopes, two — video games so as to add to that complete. If there’s a Recreation 7, it’ll be in Dawn on Monday night time.
“Anytime you’re in the identical realm as these two, it’s all the time a great factor,” McDavid stated.
It was the primary time in Panthers historical past that they performed a house sport with an opportunity to win the Cup. One other sellout crowd got here, among the paying greater than $1,000 apiece for tickets on the secondary market — the gang pushing Florida’s complete attendance for the season over 1 million for the primary time.
They got here to see the trophy.
The Oilers simply wouldn’t let it occur. And when it was over, Tkachuk was requested if the Panthers really feel the strain.
“No. No. No,” Tkachuk stated. “It’s not an elimination sport for us. We’re going up there, we have now a 3-2 collection lead, simply bought to maintain enterprise like we did in Recreation 3.”
Edmonton got here into the night time having scored 10 of the collection’ final 11 targets — a 2-0 third interval in its Recreation 3 loss, then the 8-1 romp in Recreation 4.
And the Oilers picked up proper the place they left off, with an absolute clinic of special-teams hockey.
Recreation 5 began simply as Recreation 4 did, with Edmonton getting a short-handed objective. Brown assisted it on Saturday night time; he scored it unassisted on this one, and the Oilers had been on their manner. Florida took a penalty — interference by Niko Mikkola — as time expired within the first and it proved expensive.
Hyman made it 2-0 with two seconds left within the second-period-opening energy play, and McDavid pushed Edmonton’s result in 3-0 from a ridiculously robust angle that he made look straightforward three minutes later.
The three-goal lead has been infallible within the Stanley Cup Ultimate for nearly twenty years; no crew had misplaced after main by three in a title-series sport since Edmonton in opposition to Carolina in 2006. Each crew since then, 39-0 in such video games.
Make it 40-0. However the Panthers made it attention-grabbing.
It was 4-2 by the tip of the second, Tkachuk and Rodrigues sandwiching targets round Perry’s first of the playoffs — arrange by an excellent move from McDavid. Ekman-Larsson scored early within the third, however the equalizer by no means got here.
“By no means wish to put your self behind the 8-ball,” Rodrigues stated. “We’ve bought to win one sport. Easy as that. Go up there, bought to win one sport. That’s our mindset. That’s what we’re going to go do.”
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