The Edmonton Oilers are just the third team, and the first since 1945, to force a Game 7 after falling behind 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers staved off elimination once again with a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers, and so there will be one more game in the 2023-24 NHL season.
With a frenzied Rogers Place crowd behind them, the Oilers came out with their hair on fire in Game 6 Friday night. Warren Foegele gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 7:27 of the first period, and the Oilers never allowed the Panthers to seize control of the momentum after that.
After recording four points in back-to-back games, Oilers captain Connor McDavid was held off the scoresheet in this one, and he didn't even register a shot on goal. That didn't matter, however, because other key players stepped up offensively.
Foegele's first-period tally was the result of absolutely filthy stickhandling and passing from Leon Draisaitl. Just 46 seconds into the second period, Adam Henrique came up huge with his fourth goal of the playoffs on an odd-man rush.
The real dagger came from an exemplary play by the duo of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman. With 1:40 left in the second period, Nugent-Hopkins stood in front of a Gustav Forsling point shot, and the rebound skittered out to the neutral zone. Hyman got on his horse and chased down the loose puck, and he was rewarded with a breakaway.
Hyman, the leading playoff goal-scorer, potted his 16th of the postseason with a smooth backhand finish that gave the Oilers a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.
Well before Hyman's goal, and just 10 seconds after Henrique made it a 2-0 game, there was a major turning point in the game and series. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov appeared to hammer home a rebound to cut Edmonton's lead to 2-1, but that goal didn't stand.
The Oilers challenged for offside, and officials overturned the goal because Sam Reinhart was offside by a fraction of an inch. Had the call gone the other way, it would have been a one-goal game, and the Panthers would have gotten a power play.
Having said that, there's no guarantee that Florida would have taken advantage of that situation. The Panthers went 0 for 3 on the man advantage, and they are now just 1 of 19 in the entire series. To make matters worse, the Florida power play has actually has a net goal differential of -1.
Barkov did wind up scoring a goal that counted in the third period, but it was too little too late, and he didn't have enough help around him. The Panthers will now limp back to Sunrise, Florida, to face what would be perhaps the biggest collapse in NHL history.
Only two teams have every come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final to force a Game 7. The 1945 Detroit Red Wings were the last team to do so, but they dropped Game 7 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The only team to complete a "reverse sweep" in the Final were the 1942 Maple Leafs after they came back from 3-0 down against those very same Red Wings.
If the Oilers do make history and finish their comeback, it would also end a couple of lengthy Cup droughts. Edmonton hasn't won lifted Lord Stanley since 1990, and no Canadian team has won it all in 31 years.
Game 7 will be on Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. Buckle up, everybody.