Leon Draisaitl scored at 11:18 of overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday in Sunrise, Fla., leveling the Stanley Cup Final at two wins apiece.
The Oilers trailed 3-0 after one period before rallying behind Draisaitl’s three-point game.
The best-of-seven set returns to Edmonton for Game 5 on Saturday. Three of the four games have gone to overtime.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vasily Podkolzin and Darnell Nurse all collected one goal and one assist for the Oilers. Jake Walman also scored for Edmonton, and Mattias Ekholm collected two assists.
Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced after taking the net following the first period. Starting netminder Stuart Skinner surrendered three goals on 17 shots in the opening frame before being pulled for the second consecutive game.
Draisaitl produced his fourth extra-time tally of the 2025 postseason (a single-season playoff record), finding the net with a one-armed pass attempt that ricocheted off a defender and into the cage.
Matthew Tkachuk scored twice in a three-point outing while Sam Reinhart had a goal in a three-point game for Florida, which had a golden chance to take a stranglehold on the series. Anton Lundell also scored, Aleksander Barkov had two assists and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.
The Panthers dominated the opening period. Tkachuk scored his first of the game, and of the series, at 11:40 when he buried a shot from the left circle during a five-on-three power play.
Tkachuk doubled the lead five minutes later with another man-advantage marker, a rebound tally. Then Lundell made it a 3-0 affair with 41.7 seconds remaining in the period by finishing an open chance from the slot.
The Oilers responded with their best period of the series in the second frame. Nugent-Hopkins began the comeback at 3:33 by converting an open chance from the slot during a power play, Edmonton’s ninth consecutive game with an extra-man goal.
Nurse made it a one-goal game at 12:47 of the second when he lifted a sharp-angled shot from the left wing. Podkolzin tied the clash a couple of minutes later when he pounced on a loose puck during a flurry and found the mark.
Walman gave Edmonton its first lead of the game with a rocket of a shot at 13:36 of the third period, but Reinhart’s goal with 19.5 seconds remaining in regulation during a frenzied flurry forced overtime yet again.
–Field Level Media
