Stanley Cup Final Game Five: Rat Trap

For the first time in six years, the Stanley Cup Final is even at two games each, and has now become a best-of-three series. Of the 29 previous occurrences, the winner of Game Five went on to win the series 22 of those times. One of the seven teams who failed was the New Jersey Devils in 2001. The Devils won Game Five in Denver, but dropped the next two games to the Colorado Avalanche. The most recent failure was 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks shut out the Boston Bruins, but were blasted again in Beantown before getting shut out at home in Game Seven.

Game Five of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers is a pivotal game due to the 2-2 series score. The Cup will be in the building in the next game, but this game will determine who will have a chance to win that Cup on that evening. There was a lot of discussion regarding who should start in net for the Oilers, as Calvin Pickard was stellar in relief in Game Four, plus Stuart Skinner had been pulled twice already.

The Oilers listened to the consensus, as in Game Five back in Edmonton, it was Calvin Pickard in net against Sergei Bobrovsky. It was a mostly quiet first period, with the only noise coming from Oilers fans upset over the Panthers getting away with the obvious. It looked like we'd have a scoreless opening frame. Then, on a center ice faceoff, the puck ends up with Brad Marchand, who breaks away and actually scores. 1-0 Panthers, with Anton Lundell getting the only assist. First power play went to the Oilers. Connor McDavid hit the post, Corey Perry almost had one of his own, but nothing doing on the power play. After the kill, Sam Bennett makes it 2-0, and Matthew Tkachuk had the lone assist.

2-0 was the score after 20 minutes, and the second period was also quiet, especially on the Oilers' end. They were having trouble getting shots, but they did have a power play early. Killed off. Another one came as a result of a Delay of Game penalty. Also killed off. The only benefit was that Edmonton was racking up the shots, but still, nothing was going in. The near end of the period saw Leon Draisaitl in the box. Penalty transitioned into the third and was killed off. A thought I had was, "The Oilers came back from 3-0 in the last game. It's only 2-0 now. " Well, it became 3-0, and it was Marchand again. Marchand picked a good time to be trapped in 2011, holy moley.

Edmonton needed something badly now. They did get it, they got on the board, and finally, it was #97 himself, Connor McDavid. McDavid finally gets one in the 2025 Final, and the Oilers get on the board with plenty of time left in the third. Instantly, I'm thinking, "They can do this. They have time." And then Sam Reinhart made it 4-1 less than a minute later. Wow. Oilers pull Pickard for the extra attacker, they do get one in, and it's Corey Perry, who is having a hell of a Final. Over three minutes left, just enough time to possibly get a pair if they get the first one early enough. However, Eetu Luostarinen gets the puck, shoots it across the ice, and into the empty net. That's all she wrote.

The Florida Panthers won Game Five, 5-2, and they are now one win away from repeating. Brad Marchand is insane right now. He has ten goals so far in this run, but six of them have come in the Final. Marchand has to be the frontrunner for the Conn Smythe on the Florida side; he has to be. He is on a whole other level right now. It's still strange to see him in a sweater other than the Bruins, though. Oilers fans were quick to blame Pickard for this early in the game. Let's look at the shots here. 8-3 Panthers in the first, 8-5 Oilers in the second, 10-6 Oilers in the third. Oilers only had 21 shots on net overall. That's not much. Pickard did all he could. Despite this, Skinner has to be in net the rest of the way. At least McDavid finally found the net in this series, thank goodness.

Game Six is Tuesday in Sunrise, and the Stanley Cup will be in the building. The Oilers will face elimination for the first time in this run. Remember: Edmonton avoided elimination three straight times in last year's Final before it finally ran out on them. Now, they'll only have to face it twice (at most).

If you like this story, click the heart and the subscribe button, and feel free to comment below! Tips and pledges would be greatly appreciated, as they help support my writing, but only if you want to do so!