Stanley Cup Final Game 4 live blog: Panthers vs. Oilers
By
Bill Price
@BillPriceNHL NHL.com Editor-in-Chief
June 15, 2024
EDMONTON -- Welcome to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Florida Panthers 8-1 to stay alive and send the series back to Florida for Game 5 on Tuesday. Bill Price was there to provide all the sights, sounds and highlights from Rogers Place.
10:55 p.m ET
"Play LaBamba, baby."
That’s it from Edmonton. The Oilers steamrolled the Panthers 8-1 to get their first win of the series and move the Final back to Florida for Game 5 on Tuesday.
It was a huge night for Connor McDavid, who had a goal and three assists. It ended with fans chanting “We Want the Cup.”
We’ll see. And we’ll see you in Florida on Tuesday. Thanks for following along.
And to bring this night full circle, they just played “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” by Shania Twain, who started this night with a free concert outside.
10:51 p.m. ET
We are under five minutes to go, and this place is bonkers. The Oilers just made it 8-1 on two quick goals, the first from Dylan Holloway and then another from Ryan McLeod. The Hollway goal gave Connor McDavid 32 assists, setting the NHL record for most in a single postseason, passing Wayne Gretzky.
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FLA@EDM SCF, Gm4: Holloway tallies a slick wrister for second of the game
Right after the Holloway goal, they showed a fan in an Aaron Ekblad jersey leaving the arena, and the place went nuts again.
One unsung hero from this game is Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who has made 32 saves to this point, including a dazzling one a few seconds ago, reaching out his glove to prevent public enemy No. 1 Matthew Tkachuk from scoring.
Speaking of scoring, the 50/50 prize here tonight is a whopping $14 million and counting. That’s right, 14 million dollars. Someone at this game tonight who bought 50/50 tickets is going to walk out of here with their lives completely changed.
Crazy stuff. Of course, the other $14 million goes to the Oilers charity fund, which will be used for a good cause.
10:40 p.m. ET
We are under nine minutes to play, and we might as well start packing our sunscreen, sunglasses and bathing suits because we are going back to Florida for Game 5 on Tuesday.
The Panthers just had a power play but failed to score, and then the Oilers were on the power play after Aaron Ekblad took a slashing penalty and also failed to score.
It will be interesting to see what both teams say in the postgame scrums. The Oilers have to feel great about this game and how their big stars -- Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- stepped up.
Read all about it on NHL.com later tonight.
The Panthers are still playing hard and trying to hit everything that moves, maybe setting the tone for Game 5 on Tuesday. It resulted in Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse taking a cross-checking penalty at 6:51.
They just showed former Oiler Fernando Pisani in the crowd, and the fans are going nuts.
Honestly, I think they could show me right now on the board and the fans would go nuts.
Then they played “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, and, well, everyone shouted. I was waiting to see if Mike Zeisberger would get on the floor and do the gator like Belushi does in “Animal House,” but he stayed in his seat.
A trip back to Florida gives me a chance to get back to the world famous Elbo Room. I did not get there during the first leg of this trip. I was trying to behave, but that has sort of been shot to hell at this point.
The T-shirt guy is at it again. Maybe the Oilers should bring him to Florida for Game 5.
10:28 p.m. ET
The Panthers had a shot to sort of get back in the game when Mattias Janmark took a hooking penalty 36 seconds into the third period, but the Oilers held them off, and it’s still 6-1 with under 16 minutes left to play.
The crowd doesn’t seem to care that Sergei Bobrovsky has been pulled from the game as they are still mockingly chanting his name.
On the other end of the ice, Stuart Skinner is playing well, making 25 saves to this point.
Not to put too much emphasis on this one game, but the Oilers seem to be gaining confidence with every shift, every shot, every play, and the fans are absolutely loving it.
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10:15 p.m. ET
The third period is a few minutes away, and the Oilers are in control, leading 6-1.
Now it will be interesting to see how each team handles things here. We all know the Panthers like to get under teams’ skin and hit hard, so we’ll see what happens.
We have a scoring change on the Oilers’ sixth goal, with NHL.com blogger Ryan Nugent-Hopkinsnow being credited with the goal after it intially was Zach Hyman's. I’m sure Nugent-Hopkins will have more to say about it in his blog later tonight.
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