Panthers look to stop special-teams woes that have proven costly in Stanley Cup Final losses

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Panthers kept the Oilers’ stellar power-play lines in check through the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final, but Edmonton’s stars were not going to be kept quiet forever.

In the last two games, the Oilers have scored three power-play goals and two short-handed goals. Consequently, Edmonton has won the last two games, outscoring Florida 13-4 after a 5-3 win in Game 5 on Tuesday night. The barrage of goals has allowed the Oilers to stave off elimination and force a Game 6 in Alberta on Friday night.

“We have to stay out of the penalty box,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s just it. Their power play is going now.”

The Oilers opened Game 4 with an early short-handed goal, setting the tone as they rolled to an 8-1 rout at home. The story was similar in Game 5 as Connor Brown scored a short-handed goal 5:30 into the first period on Tuesday. The two short-handed goals did some damage to Florida’s morale at the start each game.

“Shorties always hurt you,” Maurice said. “Starting out, yeah, that’s clearly not what we’d like to do. You get the excitement of a rare power play and you get out there and you end up digging it out of your net. That hurts you a little bit, for sure.”

In the second period, Edmonton added a pair of power-play goals, which proved critical as a Florida comeback attempt ultimately fell short in the 5-3 loss (with the final Oilers goal coming on an empty net).

The Oilers had six scoring chances on five-versus-four power plays, according to the hockey analytics website Natural Stat Trick. Three of those chances were considered “high-danger” opportunities.

“It’s important,” forward Sam Bennett said. “Special teams, we’ve got to be better at the power play and penalty kill. They won that battle tonight.”

It is not surprising that Edmonton has started scoring when having a man advantage. During the regular season, the Oilers were fourth in the league with a 26.3 power-play percentage. In 23 playoff games, they have improved that mark to 30.6 percent. They also have the best penalty-kill unit of all playoff teams, while the Panthers are second.

If the Panthers can stay out of the penalty box, they will have a better chance of lifting the Stanley Cup in Edmonton on Friday night. Maurice said he was largely pleased with how the Panthers performed in Game 5, and players echoed that they believed they played well in five-on-five situations.

During five-on-fives, Florida had 54 shot attempts to Edmonton’s 21. The Panthers had nine high-danger chances to the Oilers’ three, with 2.68 expected goals to Edmonton’s 0.76.

“Thought five-on-five played really well tonight,” winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “So that’s something to build off for next game. And obviously, we’ll want to keep it five-on-five. We want to stay out of the box. If we do get a power play, capitalize on it, but try to keep it five-on-five as much as possible.”