Edmonton Oilers wilt in third period of another painful loss to Panthers

On the bright side, at least it wasn’t the worst loss to the Florida Panthers in recent memory.

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But it was still pretty bad.

In a tense, high-octane showdown that lived up to its billing, the Edmonton Oilers and Panthers threw defence out the window and played ‘last goal wins’ in their first meeting since Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.

In the end, Florida scored it after the Oilers wilted down the stretch, allowing the Panthers to come back from a 4-2 deficit to post a 6-5 decision at Rogers Place.

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“Some really bad mistakes, whether it was defence not getting the puck out, or line changes, just costly mistakes that shouldn’t happen,” said head coach Kris Knobluach, who worried the Oilers were trending this way after giving up 41 shots in a 6-3 win over Vegas.

“Often the goalie will cover up those mistakes. But after the last two games, the amount of chances we’ve given up, we should have a little more attention to detail on the defensive side.”

After closing it to 4-3 late in the second period, the Panthers outscored Edmonton 3-1 in the decisive third period. Credit Florida for fighting back, but this was a night when most of Edmonton’s wounds were self-inflicted.

“It’s disappointing, obviously,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had a three-assist night but still wound up minus two. “It felt like we had it in control. We have to find a way to win that one.

“I thought we got a little bit fortunate against Vegas. It’s something we have to dial back in. Playing a team that was shut out twice in a row, you knew they were going to be hungry offensively and obviously they were. We’ve got to be better.”

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Evan Bouchard got things started by giving Florida an early gift. He screwed himself into the ice on an Oilers power play, turning the puck over for a shorthanded breakaway goal just 2:42 into the first period.

“You try that move 100 times and it will happen once or twice,” sighed Bouchard, who was on the ice for four of Florida’s six goals in a dreadful night from start to finish. “Unfortunately it ended up as a goal.”

The Oilers kept on giving when Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse left Edmonton shorthanded for four minutes (two for tripping and another two for lipping) late in the opening frame. Sure enough, Public Enemy No.1, Matthew Tkachuk, scored with 11 seconds left in the power play to give Florida a 2-1 lead at the intermission.

In a second period that had a little bit of everything, the Oilers came to life offensively, scoring three times — Hyman’s second of the night at 6:20, Connor Brown at 7:03 and Leon Draisaitl to make it 4-2 at 9:24 — proving that their quick-strike offence can drown an opponent in a hurry.

The Panthers were neck-deep at this point. But these are the Stanley Cup champions and they don’t go down easily.

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It also helped that many of the defensive lapses that almost caught up with Edmonton in a 6-3 win over Vegas sprouted up again in this game.

Florida scored three straight goals — Sam Reinhart closed it to 4-3 after 40 minutes, Niko Mikkola tied it 4-4 with 14 minutes to go and Reinhart banked a sharp-angle softie off the side of Stuart Skinner’s mask — and the champs were back in front.

“They have a lot of skilled players over there and we have a lot of skilled players here so they’re making plays and we’re making plays, but you’re not trying to open it up or anything like that, you’re not trying to get into a track meet,” said Brown. “That’s not the mentality we want to have. We want to limit as many chances as possible and the pucks that Stu does see, we want them to be predictable for him and tonight they weren’t that predictable.”

Kasperi Kapanen scored his fourth as an Oiler to make it 5-5, but the Panthers kept pressing until Carter Verhaeghe made it 6-5.

“You never want a game to get out of hand like that but we’re a team that can score goals,” said Bouchard. “When you score five you think you’re going to win the game. We didn’t.”

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