Stanley Cup Final: Oilers fend off elimination again, top Panthers 5-3 in Game 5

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk took off at full speed from basically center ice, chasing a puck that had sailed over his head and was heading directly toward an empty net.

He dove. He outstretched his stick. He swatted and barely, just barely, knocked the puck away to keep the Florida Panthers’ hope of forcing overtime alive. Problem was, the next person who got to the puck was Connor McDavid — who scored to put the game away.

Such was how Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final went for the Panthers. Even when they were good, it wasn’t good enough. And another long flight to Alberta awaits, with this title series suddenly looking very tight.

The Panthers gave up two power-play goals and a short-handed score, got into a 3-0 hole before trying to rally and wound up falling 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the title series on Tuesday night. It was the second consecutive time Florida was thwarted in a chance to win the Cup, after an 8-1 embarrassment in Edmonton over the weekend.

Game 6 is there on Friday night.

“I’m not pumping tires. I’m not rubbing backs. I don’t think we need that at all,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Everybody feels probably exactly the way I do right now. I’m not feeling deflated. Neither’s the hockey team. They’re not feeling deflated. Little grumpy.”

Maybe a lot grumpy.

“We’re going to turn the page,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “We’re going to learn from this one.”

Rodrigues and Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for Florida, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for Florida, which will see its 30-years-and-counting wait for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title last at least three more days.

“We get another crack at it on Friday,” Tkachuk said.

McDavid had two goals and two assists to become the first player in NHL history to have back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup Final, and Evan Bouchard added three assists for Edmonton. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry also had goals for the Oilers while Stuart Skinner stopped 29 shots.

McDavid said it was a total team effort. It was, but it was also another superhuman effort from McDavid, the game’s best player