Draisaitl goal in OT lifts Oilers past Panthers in Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final

EDMONTON -- Leon Draisaitl didn't score in the Stanley Cup Final last year. He already has two goals in the series this year, including maybe the biggest of his career to date.

Draisaitl scored a power-play goal with 31 seconds left in overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers came back from two goals down to defeat the Florida Panthers 4-3 in Game 1 at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series, a rematch of Florida’s seven-game victory last season, will be here on Friday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

"Especially on the power play you're looking to finish it," Draisaitl said. "Some incredible plays that made it pretty easy for me to put that home. It's a special feeling. It's great for right now, but we've got to look ahead and get ready for Game 2."

Draisaitl scored his second of the game on Edmonton's 46th shot on goal. The puck went down the left side from Evan Bouchard to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Corey Perry to Connor McDavid and finally across to Draisaitl, who scored from the right hash marks with Florida forward Tomas Nosek in the box for delay of game.

"Obviously, I'm standing over there watching this whole thing unfold and I'm the beneficiary, but the work is done way before that," Draisaitl said. "Four good plays in a row."

It was Draisaitl's third overtime goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tying him for the most in a single postseason with Perry (2017 with the Anaheim Ducks) and Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk (2023).

McDavid also had an assist on Mattias Ekholm's game-tying goal at 6:33 of the third period, and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Oilers, who fell behind 3-1 on Sam Bennett's goal early in the second period. Kasperi Kapanen had two assists.

Stuart Skinner made 29 saves, including 24 in a row after giving up the goal to Bennett, 16 coming in the second period when the Panthers were making a big push.

Edmonton tied a franchise record with its third multigoal comeback win of the playoffs. It also had three in 1988 and 1990. This was also the 41st multigoal comeback win in Stanley Cup Final history.

"Numerous times we've been able to just stick with it," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I saw that last year, the composure, us not getting rattled. Tonight, playing against a very good team, great defensively, don't give up many opportunities to squander leads, and we're pushing and pushing and finally we're able to get that goal to tie it up. I think experience helped a little, last year being in the Final, but I think this is just a pretty mature team."

Bennett scored two goals to set a Panthers playoff record with an NHL-leading 12 this postseason. Brad Marchand also scored, Carter Verhaeghe and Nate Schmidt each had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 42 saves.

But the Panthers lost for the first time when leading after the first or second period in three postseasons under coach Paul Maurice. They were previously 31-0 in such situations.

"We can learn some things from tonight and then we're just going to move on," Bennett said. "I think just not let up. Don't sit back. We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead and for whatever reason we sat back tonight.”

Draisaitl gave the Oilers an early 1-0 lead, scoring 1:06 into the first period on a rebound from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

Florida tied it 1-1 on Bennett's first goal of the game at 10:49.

The Oilers challenged the goal, claiming goaltender interference on Bennett, who came into contact with Skinner before the puck went into the net. Edmonton lost the challenge because video review confirmed that defenseman Brett Kulak caused Bennett to contact Skinner.

The Panthers received a power play because of the failed challenge, and Marchand scored on that man-advantage for a 2-1 lead at 12:30.

"I'd challenge that any day," Knoblauch said. "I was on the bench, I was looking at it again, I was getting ready for our next lines and I see a player fall in. I am told he was tripped. If that play happened again I would challenge it."

Bennett extended Florida's lead to 3-1 at 2:00 of the second, scoring on a 2-on-1 with Schmidt.

The Oilers made it 3-2 just 77 seconds later when Arvidsson's shot from above the left circle got through Bobrovsky at 3:17.

"We put ourselves in a tough spot and I thought it was a massive goal from 'Arvi,'" said McDavid, the Edmonton captain. "Massive. Timely. And we just hung in there."

Skinner helped, making those 16 straight saves to keep the Oilers within one goal going into the third period after allowing three goals on the first eight shots he faced.

"That's what I've got to do," Skinner said. "It doesn't really matter how the last period goes or how the last goal goes in or the last great save. It's all about what you do from there. I knew that they were going to have a push. ... My job is to give the team a chance to win."

Ekholm tied it 3-3 at 6:33 of the third period. He scored from the left circle off a pass from McDavid, who found Ekholm with a backhanded pass through the slot from below the goal line to the right of the net.

The Oilers outshot the Panthers 14-2 in the third period and 10-6 in overtime.

"Its potential [is] to be just a spectacular seven-gamer," Maurice said of the series. "Up and down the ice. It's still fast. There's not any casualness and there's no [nonsense] in either team's game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep. … It was honest, it was hard, it was fast and it was tight. It was an overtime game."

NOTES: It was the 21st time Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final went to overtime. … This was the 10th multigoal comeback win in Game 1 of the Cup Final, and first since 2019, when the Boston Bruins defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2. … The Oilers lead the NHL with seven comeback wins this postseason and are tied with the Dallas Stars for the most third-period comeback wins (four).