Panthers Defeat Oilers 4-3 in Stanley Cup Final Rematch

SUNRISE, Fla. — Thursday night saw the Edmonton Oilers return to Amerant Bank Arena for the first time since Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Like it went down last June, the Panthers took down the Oilers in a close contest on home ice — though this one didn’t matter nearly as much — coming away with a  4-3 win. 

“Playing against these guys it’s always a big game, especially after what happened last year,” said Carter Verhaeghe who scored the game winning goal on Thursday. “I think getting the best of them tonight kind of sent a message and we liked the way we played. We kind of grinded it out but we got the win, which is most important.”

In the victory, the Panthers improved to 36-21-3 on the season and jumped the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Atlantic Division lead. 

Sergei Bobrovksy had 24 saves — with nine of those coming in the third — to pick up his 24th win of the season.

Stuart Skinner stopped 32 of 36 shots in the loss and the Oilers losing streak extends to five games, dating back to Feb.7 before the 4 Nations break. 

No love was lost between last season’s Cup finalists. 2:52 into the game Corey Perry and A.J. Greer (who wasn’t on the Panthers last season) got the arena going with an early fight.

Carter Verhaeghe thought he opened the scoring 7:15 into the game on the power-play, however the goal didn’t stand after a successful coach’s challenge by the Oilers confirmed the play was offside. 

The Panthers would eventually get that opening goal back about five minutes later thanks to Uvis Balinskis, who beat Skinner low glove-side for his fourth goal of the season.  

Brett Kulak would get the Oilers on the board 14:41 into the first after catching Bobrovsky by surprise with a fairly weak, low shot for his seventh goal of the season.

Anton Lundell reclaimed the lead 15:30 into the second period, with his 14th goal of the season. Aaron Ekblad fired a shot-pass towards the direction of Lundell, who redirected the shot in — with his skate — to put the Panthers up 2-1.

Lundell had a game-high three points (1G, 2A), taking him to 40 points on the season. His career-high is 44 points — which came in his rookie season (2021-22).

“He can really take over and dominate a game,” Nate Schmidt said of Lundell. “I think that’s something that as a young player he’s only learning to get better and better at. It’s going to be fun to watch his progression as a young kid growing into a man in this league and understanding what he can do on a daily basis.”

The NHL’s top scorer Leon Draisaitl didn’t let his team trail for long. Exactly two minutes after Lundell’s go-ahead goal, Draisaitl equalized with his league-leading 44th goal of the season, knotting things up at 2-2 before the final period of play. 

With the score at a deadlock in the third, an unlikely scorer put the home team up once again. 

Nate Schmidt beat Skinner off the rush for his fifth goal of the season, giving the Panthers a 3-2 lead.   

Lundell spun off John Klingberg’s pressure along the boards to hit A.J. Greer at full steem, who then fed a drop pass to Schmidt, who buried the go-ahead goal. 

Verhaeghe, who had a goal wiped off the board in the first, doubled the Panthers lead with the eventual game winner a little under three minutes after Schmidt lit the lamp. 

After going down two, Zach Hyman gave the Oilers a chance after tucking away his 20th goal of the season — cutting the deficit to one with 3:25 to play — but the comeback effort fell short for a struggling Oilers squad. 

Despite the win, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t satisfied with his team’s performance. 

I really didn’t like our game tonight,” Maurice said postgame. “We put a lot of pucks in feet, I thought we looked away from a bunch of pucks. It’s not the way we play… we chose not to be as physical as I think we could have been in that game.”

He added: “I thought the last eight minutes we looked the way we were supposed to.”

The Panthers, who are 2-1-0 out of the 4 Nations break will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against former Panther Ryan Lomberg and the Calgary Flames. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. ET.

PANTHERS NOTES

Matthew Tkachuk (lower-body) missed his third consecutive game after getting hurt playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Tkachuk will also miss Saturday’s home game against his former team, the Calgary Flames.