Connor McDavid, Oilers top Panthers, extend finals again

Connor McDavid scored twice in a four-point performance while leading Edmonton to a 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday in Sunrise, Fla., as the Oilers staved off elimination for a second time in the Stanley Cup Final.

Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry also scored for the Oilers, who have won two straight but still trail the best-of-seven series 3-2.

Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner made 29 saves and Evan Bouchard logged three assists, joining Larry Robinson (1978) as the only defensemen with seven multi-assist games in a single postseason. Bouchard now has 26 assists this postseason, the most by a defenseman during a single playoff run.

McDavid, who has posted consecutive four-point outings, became only the third player in NHL history to notch 40 or more points in a single playoff year, joining Wayne Gretzky (1985, 1988, 1993) and Mario Lemieux (1991).

No player had ever recorded back-to-back four-point outings in a final before McDavid did so, and he and Gretzky are the only players to have multiple four-point games at any stage of the final.

Matthew Tkachuk and Evan Rodrigues each collected one goal and one assist for Florida. Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored, and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots. The series returns to Edmonton for Game 6 on Friday.

Brown netted a short-handed goal to open the scoring at the 5:30 mark of the first period. He intercepted a cross-ice pass at his own blue line and finished a breakaway deke for his second marker of the playoffs.

Hyman doubled the lead at 1:58 of the second period, producing a power-play marker when he deflected Bouchard’s point shot for his 15th goal of the playoffs. Then McDavid made it a 3-0 game at 5:00 of the frame by threading the needle with a sharp-angled shot off the rush.

Tkachuk gave the Panthers life less than two minutes later by converting an open chance from the slot for his sixth tally.

Perry restored Edmonton’s three-goal edge with another power-play goal at 11:54, redirecting McDavid’s crossing pass for his first marker of the playoffs. The Panthers found another gear and pushed for a comeback. Rodrigues responded 14 seconds later by burying a rebound for his seventh goal of the playoff run and his fourth of the series.

Ekman-Larsson made it a one-goal game at 4:04 of the third period by blasting a one-timer from the slot for his second goal of the playoffs.