EDMONTON — Leon Draisaitl capped a two-goal effort with the overtime winner to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 comeback victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday.
Connor McDavid picked up his second assist of the game chipping a pass in front to Draisaitl who scored a power-play goal with just 31 seconds remaining in extra time.
Viktor Arvidsson and Mattias Ekholm also scored for the Oilers, who lost the first three games of last year’s Cup final against Florida before storming back to force Game 7, where they suffered a narrow 2-1 loss.
Stuart Skinner made 29 stops in net for the win.
Sam Bennett had a pair of goals and Brad Marchand also scored for the Panthers, who are playing in their third consecutive Stanley Cup final.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 42 saves in the loss.
Edmonton got off to a tremendous start with a goal just 66 seconds into the opening period.
A big rebound from a Kasperi Kapanen shot came out to Draisaitl and he sent his eighth of the playoffs into a wide-open net. It was the fastest goal to start a Cup final in nearly 50 years. Draisaitl didn’t score once in last year’s final.
Florida tied the game at 10:49 of the first period as a Carter Verhaeghe shot ticked off of a sprawling Bennett and past Skinner.
The Oilers unsuccessfully challenged the goal, saying Bennett interfered with their goalie on the play, but a quick review went in Florida’s favour. It proved costly, as the Panthers struck again just over a minute later on the ensuing power play, with Nate Schmidt making a nice feed to the side of the net to Marchand, who potted his fifth.
Florida took a two-goal lead just two minutes into the second period as Schmidt made a nice feed to give Bennett a free lane to the net and he beat Skinner stick-side for his 12th of the playoffs. Bennett set a new franchise record for post-season goals and tying an NHL record for road goals in a playoffs with 11.
Edmonton responded just 1:17 later as Arvidsson sent a shot through traffic that ticked off Bobrovsky and in for his second.
The Oilers tied the game up with 13:27 to play in the third period as McDavid sent it back to a pinching Ekholm who scored his first. Ekholm was playing in just his second game of the post-season after missing two months with injury, becoming the 20th Oiler with a goal in these playoffs.
Edmonton outshot Florida 14-2 in the third period.
It was the 19th Game 1 to go to overtime in Stanley Cup final history, with 14 of the 18 winners of those OT contests going on to win the series.
NOTES
It is just the second Cup final rematch in the past 40 years since Edmonton played the New York Islanders in 1983 and 1984, and first since Detroit and Pittsburgh played each other in 2008 and 2009. The team that lost the first half of the two previous rematches came back to win in the second meeting… Clubs that win Game 1 have gone on to win the Cup 76.5 per cent of the time (65-20), including all of the past four years.
UP NEXT
Game 2 takes place on Friday in Edmonton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2025.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
