GAME RECAP: Panthers 5, Oilers 2 (Game 5)

EDMONTON, AB – There's only one option left now.

Win Game 6 on the road and then lift the Stanley Cup on home ice in Game 7.

The Edmonton Oilers face elimination from the Stanley Cup Final after falling 5-2 to the Florida Panthers on Saturday in Game 5 at Rogers Place, trailing 3-2 in the series as we head back to Sunrise for Game 6 on Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena when the Stanley Cup will be in the building.

"Obviously, it's not the way you draw it up," Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "It's not the way you want to have to play every night, but we're never gonna quit on each other and we're always gonna try our hardest to get back in the game, but sometimes it's harder than other nights. We're going to Florida with a job to do, and we're going to do everything we can to do it."

Panthers forward Brad Marchand scored twice to reach 10 this postseason and six in the series, combining with another tally from centre Sam Bennett to give Florida a 3-0 lead just over five minutes into the third period before Connor McDavid and Corey Perry tacked on goals for the Oilers.

Sam Reinhart restored Florida's three-goal lead just 46 seconds after McDavid made it 3-1 before Eetu Luostarinen added an empty-netter in the final two minutes to seal a 5-2 victory for the Panthers, who can lift their franchise's second Cup and their second straight with a win at home on Tuesday in Game 6.

The Oilers went 0-for-3 on the power play.

Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse all contributed helpers, while goaltender Calvin Pickard saw his perfect 7-0 record in the Stanley Cup Playoffs snapped after allowing four goals on 18 shots in the defeat.

The Oilers need a victory in Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday to force a Game 7 at Rogers Place on Friday.

FIRST PERIOD

Despite a quick start from the Oilers in the first five minutes, a two-goal response from the Panthers in the first period left the Blue & Orange needing another comeback like during Game 4 after Marchand and Bennett capitalized on two different rushes to give Florida a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

"I think we've come out flat for most of the series, so that's something," Mattias Ekholm said. "I think it's a mindset. I think we just have to make sure we get pucks in and try to put pressure on them. They're a good team for a reason, and they've come out and shown that early in games.

"We've got to find a way to be better than that at the start."

Winger Connor Brown called goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky into action less than a minute into the contest, forcing him to make a glove save on his partial breakaway before Connor McDavid had a two-on-one with his linemate that he nearly put away at the post on his second attempt off a block made by Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad.

Edmonton's top line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Connor Brown continued to look dangerous early, as the Oilers captain was able to knock down a rimmed puck from Bobrovsky below the goal line to leave it loose for Brown, who crashed the net and created a second opportunity for McDavid to fire it back into the crease before it sat loose between Bobrovsky's pads and was cleared from danger.

When a Mattias Ekholm dump-in bounced off the boards and on goal to create a confusing save for Bobrovsky before the five-minute mark, the Oilers were feeling happy with their start on home ice, but a Darnell Nurse shot just five seconds later would be their last of the period before the Panthers took over.

Forward Brad Marchand continued his strong series for the Panthers by opening the scoring with his ninth goal of the playoffs and fifth of the Stanley Cup Final before the midway mark of the frame, activating quickly off a centre-ice faceoff to get to Anton Lundell's push off the draw and cutting to the inside to beat Ekholm at the blueline before firing his effort into the far corner on Pickard to make it 1-0 for Florida.

"They kind of half won it, and he came through with a lot of speed, and I was trying just to get the puck and he got it by me," Ekholm said.

Edmonton's first power play arrived at 15:44 into the opening frame when Seth Jones interfered with Mattias Janmark pursuing the puck down low near Florida's crease, giving the Oilers an avenue to draw even that proved to be a dead end after they couldn't even generate a shot on goal.

That Panthers' kill led to Sam Reinhart doubling his team's lead just 22 seconds after Jones exited the penalty box, turning a failed dump-in by Ekholm in between the benches into a quick rush chance where Matthew Tkachuk got the puck along the left side and had his shot blocked by Jake Walman before Reinhart picked up the rebound and threw it past Pickard with 1:54 left in the opening frame.

"I thought we got off to a great start," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Two of the goals against, we won the draw and they go down and score immediately, and that's tough. Other than being on the attack, having the puck, getting in on the forecheck, those should at least happen. What turns out is that we're picking the puck out of our net, so I thought the first 10 minutes it was a pretty good start. Second half of the period, not so much."

SECOND PERIOD

A pair of power plays for the Oilers and seven of the first eight shots in the opening half of the middle frame had them looking like they could turn the tide on the Panthers, but you need to cash in on your opportunities when you have them, and the Blue & Orange failed to make the most of their chances.

As a result, the Oilers would start the final period facing the same 2-0 deficit they had trailed by after 20 minutes of Game 5 on Saturday.

"We had some looks for sure, but we need to find a way to generate some second and third looks to quickly pull them out of their formation a little bit more," Nugent-Hopkins said. "But I thought we had some looks and we'll stay confident, stay positive, take a look and see if we can correct anything."

Edmonton's power play did manage a few shots over their two opportunities in the second period, with one of their attempts not even counting as a shot when Connor McDavid cracked the outside of the left post near the end of what was an intense sequence from the top-unit power play on their third look of the contest with the man advantage.

The Oilers' power play dropped to 0-for-3, having been unable to give their team the breakthrough it needed in Game 5 in a similar fashion to how Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' PPG early in the second period of Thursday's Game 4 comeback victory made it 3-1 to cue Edmonton's heroic response.

"We've been doing it all series. You just gotta put more pucks there from the forwards and D and then play off it and find ways to get those pucks back, then re-attack as quickly as you can," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Tonight, we were stuck on the outside a little bit too much, but we'll find ways to get back there."

A high-sticking penalty assessed to Leon Draisaitl before the intermission – Edmonton's sixth high stick of the series – put the Oilers on the penalty kill for the second time, leading to them finishing the last 20 seconds of the frame at five-on-four before beginning the third with 1:40 still remaining on the kill.

"In the second period, I thought we had some good opportunities, chances and the majority of the play in the offensive zone, but it was a very tight-checking game," Knoblauch said. "And when you're trailing, those are the kind of games you'd like to open up a little bit. They're not going to open up very much. They're a good, sound defensive team. They don't make many mistakes. We just had to try and execute a few more plays to open things up."

THIRD PERIOD

The body language of the Oilers after they cut into the Panthers' leads at 3-1 with 13:36 of the period and 4-2 with 3:13 left in regulation indicated that there was still a long way for them to go to try and make some more magic happen in Game 5.

Ultimately, it'd be a distance they couldn't cover in an attempt to repeat Thursday's emotional win, as the Panthers were able to absorb the Oilers' efforts in the final frame to take a 3-2 series lead back to Sunrise for the chance at lifting their second straight Stanley Cup on Tuesday night on home ice.

Marchand made another terrific move up ice to make it 3-0 for the Panthers just over five minutes into the third period, taking off up ice following a turnover by the Oilers at Florida' blueline before goign through the legs of defenceman Jake Walman and sliding home another breakaway goal through the legs of Pickard for his 10th goal of the playoffs, and sixth goal of the series.

Just over two minutes later, McDavid lost the coverage of Reinhart in the left circle to enable the Oilers captain to attack Bobrovsky one-on-one and dangle the netminder into submission before sliding it home to get Edmonton on the board at 3-1 with just under 14 minutes of regulation remaining.

McDavid didn't celebrate beyond removing his mouth guard and giving his teammates fist bumps before returning to the bench for the next line to come out and keep building on their late push down by two goals, but that deficit was quickly back to three.

Only 46 seconds later, the Oilers had four players low in their own zone to leave Reinhart open in the slot to take an open pass from Aleksander Barkov and fire it through traffic top shelf on Pickard to restore Florida's three-goal lead to 4-1 with 8:10 gone in the third period.

"From what I saw, I think Picks didn't have much chance on those goals," Knoblauch said. "Breakaways, shots through screens, slot shots, nothing says that it was a poor performance."

The Oilers pulled Pickard for the extra attacker with plenty of time to spare, and following suit with his veteran counterpart in Marchand, forward Corey Perry was able to make it 4-2 at six-on-five with his 10th goal of the postseason on a shot from distance that beat Bobrovsky through a screen in front.

But with 1:19 left, forward Eetu Luostarinen scored into the empty net from the defensive zone to cap off the 5-2 victory for the Panthers, leaving the Oilers the only option of winning Game 6 on Tuesday night in Sunrise to force the deciding Game 7 at Rogers Place on Friday.

"We know that we can get it done. It's just a matter of going out there and finding a way to do it," Nugent-Hopkins said. "It's obviously going to be our hardest challenge yet, so we look forward to it. We'll take tonight and tomorrow to reset and go from there, but we have confidence in ourselves that we can get the job done, but it's a lot easier said than done.

"You've got to go do it, so we look forward to that."