Oilers down 3-2 in Stanley Cup final after Game 5 loss to Marchand’s Panthers

Posted June 14, 2025 6:13 pm.
Last Updated June 14, 2025 10:22 pm.
The Edmonton Oilers are having trouble solving the Florida Panthers — and they’re running out of time to find answers.
The Oilers are on the brink of a second Stanley Cup final defeat in as many years after losing to the Panthers 5-2 in Game 5 on two goals by Brad Marchand and a 19-save effort by Sergei Bobrovsky.
Once again in the series, the Oilers were foiled by a slow start, going down 2-0 to the Panthers in the first period while managing just three shots on goal.
“If I knew, I would obviously address it,” Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm said of the early-game struggles. “But they’re a good team over there, we’re a good team. We got to just make sure we bear down early on in games. It hasn’t happened for us.”
The Panthers have scored first in four consecutive contests.
“Obviously chasing the game over and over against a team like this is very difficult,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
“It’s not the way you draw it up, it’s not the way you want to play every night, but we never quit on each other, we’re always going to try our hardest to get back in the game, but sometimes it’s harder than other nights.”
The Oilers have made a habit of overcoming multi-goal deficits in these playoffs, often with late-game theatrics. So when Connor McDavid and Corey Perry found the back of the net in the third period to make it 4-2, fans at Edmonton’s Rogers Place certainly believed another comeback could be in the cards.
There wasn’t.
“Again, if I knew, I’d obviously address it, and then we’ll be better,” Ekholm said. “But I’m sure we’ll look at some things and learn from it.”
The only problem is: the time for learning is in short supply, with the Panthers on the cusp of yet another Stanley Cup. Game 6 of the series goes Tuesday in Sunrise, Fla.
“It’s a moment you think about your whole life, it’s in the back of your head,” said Sam Bennett, who scored his 15th of the post-season, of the chance to win the Cup again at home.
The Panthers were up 3-0 in last year’s series against the Oilers, who forced Game 7 before Florida ultimately won hockey’s holy grail.
“I think we can just learn from that experience from last year,” Bennett said. “We were already looking ahead before we were ready to put in the work to get the job done. So yeah, we know what we have to do now.”
The Oilers were down 2-0 in the third period when the veteran Marchand scored at 5:12 to take the air out of Rogers Place. It started as an Oilers face-off win in their own offensive zone. But seconds later they turned the puck over and were faced with a usual sight: Marchand zooming down the ice. He danced around Jake Walman and beat Calvin Pickard five-hole for his second of the game and sixth of the series.
“I don’t know how he did that,” Bennett said of Marchand’s second goal. “We’re gonna have to watch that clip a couple of times and ask him to teach me something,.”
Marchand is the first player in NHL history to score at least five goals in a single Stanley Cup final with two different teams.
McDavid did his part re-energizing the building two minutes later, scoring his first of the final. The Oilers captain found himself in acres of space, dangled the puck to avoid a couple of stick checks and beat Bobrosvky low.
With the crowd still buzzing from that goal, Sam Reinhart restored Florida’s three-goal cushion 46 seconds later with a perfect shot off the crossbar and in.
With Pickard on the bench for the extra skater, Perry scored for Edmonton with 3:13 left in the game to make it 4-2 with a shot from the blue line that beat Bobrosvky, who was screened by Gustav Forsling.
The gave Oilers fans some hope, which quickly dissipated when Eetu Luostarinen put the game to bed for Florida with an empty-netter.
With the victory, the Panthers matched the NHL record for road wins in one playoff year with 10.
When a best-of-seven Stanley Cup final is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 has gone on to win the series 73 per cent of the time. The Oilers want that percentage to drop ever so slightly now.
“We know that we can get it done,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “It’s just a matter of going out there to do it. It’s obviously going to be our hardest challenge yet. So we’ll look forward to it, we’ll take tonight, tomorrow we reset and go from there. We have confidence in ourselves that we can get the job done. But it’s a lot easier said than done.”
Marchand got the scoring going at 9:12 of the first period with a goal that foreshadowed his second one. Off a draw at centre ice, Marchand jumped on the puck and raced to Edmonton’s net, got the inside position on Ekholm, and fired the puck past Pickard off the post and in.
It was Marchand’s 12th career goal in a Stanley Cup final — the most among all active NHL players.
“We won a faceoff that led to a goal against. That’s tough,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Two of the goals against, we won the draws and they go down and score immediately. And you know, that’s tough. Rather then being on the attack, having the puck, getting in on the forecheck, at least should happen, and what turns out is we’re the ones picking the puck out of our net.”
With less than two minutes to play in that first period, Bennett did what he does best: silencing the visiting crowd.
Off a turnover in neutral ice, Matthew Tkachuk’s shot was blocked by Walman but the puck fell right to Bennett on the doorstep. Bennett scored in his sixth consecutive road game, becoming only the fifth NHL player to accomplish the feat, and the fourth active player to score at least 15 goals in a single post-season.
It was better from Edmonton in the second period. The Oilers tried to cut the deficit, boosted by two power-play opportunities in which they put together good scoring chances.
With Aaron Ekblad in the box for tripping, Perry had a big chance in front of Bobrovsky but couldn’t get his stick on a bouncing puck.
Later, after Reinhart flipped the puck over the glass, Perry’s deflection missed the net just wide before McDavid ripped a shot off the post.