Leon Draisaitl scores in overtime as Oilers beat Panthers, tie Stanley Cup Final at two games apiece

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on Jun 12, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SUNRISE, Fla. — Sam Reinhart scored a game-tying goal with 19.5 seconds left in regulation, but Leon Draisaitl scored 11:18 into overtime as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers, 5-4, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday at Amerant Bank Arena.

The best-of-7 series is now tied 2-2. Game 5 is Saturday at 8 p.m. from Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

Reinhart’s goal was the latest game-tying goal in a Stanley Cup playoff game in Panthers history — and the second-latest game-tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history behind Corey Perry’s goal with 17.8 seconds left in Game 2 of the series.

But the Oilers got the last strike, with Draisaitl logging his second overtime winner of the series.

The game needed overtime — the third game that went beyond regulation in the first four contests of the series — because Edmonton mounted a ferocious comeback after falling into a three-goal, first-period deficit.

Florida jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on a pair of Matthew Tkachuk power-play goals — one at five-on-three, another at five-on-four — and an Anton Lundell goal set up by a Carter Verhaeghe forecheck behind the Oilers’ net.

The Panthers’ first period was so dominant — Florida leading 34-15 in shot attempts, 17-7 in shots on goal, 22-5 in scoring chances and 13-2 in high-danger chances — that Edmonton pulled starting goaltender Stuart Skinner for backup Calvin Pickard for a second consecutive game.

But the Oilers, who are essentially fighting for their life, weren’t going to go down easy.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on the power play 3:33 into the second period; 3-1.

Then Darnell Nurse scored top shelf from a wide angle 12:47 into the frame; 3-2.

And then Vasily Podkolzin took a Nurse rebound and fired it into the back of the net 15:05 into the period.

Just like that, it was 3-3 going into the second intermission.

The Panthers came out in the third with some serious jump and generated most of the scoring chances through the early going of the final frame but couldn’t get anything past Pickard. They staved off a dangerous power-play opportunity from Edmonton in that span as well, with Sergei Bobrovsky robbing Corey Perry with a save that went off the blades of his skate.

But Edmonton managed to take advantage of a long Panthers shift and executed when it got in Florida’s zone. Kasperi Kapanen got the puck in the slot from Nugent-Hopkins, paused for a moment and then pushed the puck to Jake Walman, whose slap shot got past Bobrovsky to give Edmonton its only lead of regulation.

Reinhart gave the Panthers life, but only for so long.

And now the series is tied.