Three more wins to go.
The Edmonton Oilers took down the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, winning by a score of 4-3 in overtime. Leon Draisaitl led the way with two goals, including the overtime winner.
Let’s go through what happened in Game 1.
For the ninth consecutive game, the Oilers opened the scoring as Leon Draisaitl scored his first Stanley Cup Finals goal of his career just 66 seconds into the game. He did a good job of winning the puck battle and being in the right spot for the rebound.
With just over nine minutes remaining in the first period, the Panthers got on the board as a shot from Carter Verhaeghe deflected off Sam Bennett to beat Stuart Skinner. Why was Skinner beaten? Well, Bennett fell into him, and the referees seemed to think he had no chance of avoiding Skinner, even after a coach’s challenge. More on that later.
On the ensuing Panthers’ power play, Nate Schmidt made a cross-ice pass to Brad Marchand, elevating it over a diving Skinner to take a 2-1 referee’s lead into the first intermission.
Not long after the first intermission ended, the Panthers made it 3-1. Just two minutes into the second, the Panthers came back on an odd-man rush, with Bennett scoring his second of the game on a breakaway. You can’t blame the referees on this one; that was just poor defence.
Just a minute and 17 seconds later, the Oilers had an answer. This time, it was the fourth line that scored as Vasily Podkolzin got a zone entry, dropped it to Viktor Arvidsson, who took one of his patented off-the-rush slapshots, beating Sergei Bobrovsky through a screen to get within one.
The Oilers tied the game six and a half minutes into the third period, as Connor McDavid got the zone entry and dropped it to Kasperi Kapanen. He went back to McDavid, who was underneath the goal line, with the best player of all time making a beautiful net-front pass to Mattias Ekholm. The defenceman made no mistake in scoring his first of the postseason to become the 20th Oiler to score this postseason.
Late into the first overtime period, the Oilers received a power play as a Panther shot the puck over the glass. Corey Perry made a nice pass to McDavid down low, with the Panther defenceman leaving Draisaitl all alone in front of the net. The second-best player in the world made no mistake in scoring his second of the game.

Takeaways from Game 1…

This is the first time the Oilers have gone up 1-0 in the Stanley Cup Final since a triple overtime victory against the Boston Bruins in 1990. In last year’s meeting, the Panthers won the first two games at home before eventually winning the series in seven.
Losing Game 1 is pretty typical for the Oilers, but that wasn’t the case this time. Since the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era started, the Oilers are now 5-11 in Game 1s. In all-time playoff series, the Panthers are 10-1 when winning Game 1 and the Oilers are 24-3 when winning Game 1. One of those three losses game in the second round of the 2017 postseason.
Something that the seven games of last year’s Stanley Cup Final lacked was overtime. All seven games ended in regulation, with only three of them being within two goals by the end of 60, including the Oilers’ Game 7 loss. The last time the Oilers played in overtime in the Stanley Cup Finals, Fernando Pisani scored in Game 5 to keep their hopes alive.
The officials had a rough game. Florida’s first goal had no business counting, because even with Brett Kulak’s contact, Sam Bennett fell back five feet directly onto Stuart Skinner. Of course, the Oilers challenged it because it was clearly goalie interference. On the ensuing power play that shouldn’t have happened, the Panthers scored to take a 2-1 lead. The officials were also in the way a lot, as the puck bounced off of them at least five times.
To tie into the officials, the Oilers only won 43.6% of faceoffs. It seemed like in every faceoff, there was at least a warning, if not an Oiler being thrown out of the draw.
Jake Walman is going to have some bruises after this one, as two of his four blocks hobbled him. Still, it was a good game for the Oilers’ trade deadline pick-up as he finished with five shots, the most for any Oiler defenceman. He was by far the Oilers’ best defenceman this game.
Evan Bouchard was Walman’s partner for a few shifts, and this was one of Bouchard’s worst games this postseason. On two occasions, he turned the puck over mindlessly to give the Panthers two Grade A scoring chances. Bouchard also had an overtime breakaway, but he was stopped.
Corey Perry didn’t have a great game in regulation, taking two needless penalties in the first period that swung the momentum in favour of the Panthers. He made a nice play on Draisaitl’s overtime goal, though, which makes up for it. 
The Oilers loaded up their top line in the second half of the period, playing Draisaitl and McDavid together along with Perry. Kris Knoblauch tends to put them together when they’re chasing the game, which the Oilers were until their third goal.
Sticking with Knoblauch, what a smart decision it was to add Kasperi Kapanen to the lineup. With two assists on Wednesday, he now has a three-game point streak and four points in his last three games. Kapanen also narrowly missed scoring his second overtime winner this postseason.
Stuart Skinner had a good game, saving 29 of 32 shots for a .906 save percentage, his worst performance in a win this season. However, he didn’t really have much of a chance on any of the goals, especially the first one, considering he was interfered with.
The Oilers have a chance to take a 2-0 series lead heading down south, as Game 2 starts at 6:00 PM MT in Edmonton.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.