Role players lead Edmonton Oilers charge with short-handed goal

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Lost in the mist of Connor McDavid’s signature four-point night on Saturday, including three assists that broke Wayne Gretzky’s single-season playoff assist record, was the big bang start by the Edmonton Oilers foot soldiers in Game 4.

Maybe head coach Kris Knoblauch was playing a hunch, but he started the line of Adam Henrique between Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown. The third-liners got the decibel level through the roof with a short-handed goal by Janmark, his second of the playoffs, off a sweet pass from Brown, and an even-strength goal by Henrique off a perfect relay through the blue paint from Janmark.

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All three put in a high-quality, four-a-half minutes in the first period as they laid the foundation for the team’s first win of the Stanley Cup Final.

Janmark’s short-handed goal came with Darnell Nurse in the penalty box for a knee on Florida’s Sam Bennett. It was the first time an Oiler had potted two shorties in the same playoff year since Todd Marchant did it in their storied 1997 run when they knocked off Dallas in the first round.

The words of Brown in his morning chat with the media rang loudly.

“The belief in our room, the belief in each other … we just think we’re the only team in the league that can accomplish something like this, being able to come back. I mean, as Corey Perry said, it’s just one thing at a time but we need a good start and we’ll build from there,” said Brown.

“Backed into a corner, we just seem more comfortable and we play our best.”

And as Florida coach Paul Maurice said eight hours before puck drop: “I’m not coaching the Oilers but there will be two energy sources in the building tonight, one’s desperation and other’s desire, for lack of another word — both powerful sources of energy.”

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Desperation from the Oilers, down 3-0 in the finals, won out over Florida’s desire to be carrying the Cup, which was at Rogers Place on Saturday. Keeper of the silver mug Phil Pritchard had his white gloves ready to take it out of its case had the Panthers won.

But Janmark, Brown and Henrique prevented that with not only their efforts but their quick results in what turned out to be an eventual 8-1 beatdown, after the Oilers had just four goals in their first 180 minutes of the series.

“Brownie and Janny had an unbelievable start, that set the tone for the whole game and eased the pressure on everybody. That was massive,” said Oilers winger Dylan Holloway who also had two goals in the rout.

“Those two guys may have been our best players,” said Knoblauch.

Brown laughed that he had sent a grenade to Janmark, in the air, into his feet, on his first short-handed goal of the playoffs against Dallas.

This one was a pass on the tape after a rush up ice on Sergei Bobrovsky, sweeping around the Florida goalie, the puck landing right on Janmark’s stick.

Lots of nights the team’s oxygen comes from McDavid and Leon Draisaitl when the heat’s turned up high and a team win is mandatory, but this time it was Janmark and Brown, the bit players who gave them a spark..

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“Well, I think Davo (McDavid) had a couple of points tonight, too,” chuckled Janmark.

“The top players carry the load for us, but depth scoring … there has to be nights where we chip in, too, and tonight was the night. You want to have those nights as much as possible, so that’s just not (one and done). Hopefully we have a few more in us.”

The short-handed score with Nurse in the box was almost clinical.

“We had about 10 of these in the regular season and didn’t do much with them but it’s working right now,” said Brown. “We’re reading off each other pretty well on the penalty kill, our whole group actually.”

This time around, I had a little bit of real estate. He’s a tough guy to beat (Bobrovsky) and it’s not that I went down there planning on going around the net on Bob. I just took what he gave me. He had established his ice and I was able to chip it back into the blue paint.”

“At the end of the day, you’re always trying to kill the penalty first, but five-on-five offence is hard to come by because both teams are sharp. On the kill there’s more space. Brownie and I skate pretty well and tonight it worked,” said Janmark.

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Brown and Janmark have been plenty good at even strength, too, though. And in the playoffs their chemistry has been golden. Janmark has six points (three goals) in the post-season, Brown five points. They both had 12 points in 71 league games.

“I don’t know what to say. In the regular season, I think it’s a little harder to do this. In the playoffs, everything gets a little simpler as you go along. Plays you make matter more,” said Janmark.

“I mean, you try to take pride in that in game 38, too, but it’s not as easy to get noticed or it doesn’t matter as much then. We’ve been able to capitalize on a few goals in these playoffs,” he said.

“When you go through a tough regular season like both of us, production wise, you look at the playoffs and one goal then means more than four in regular season,” said Janmark.

Maurice certainly saw the value of Janmark and Brown’s work in this one.

“Well, you’re wired for the game, then you give up a shortie,” he said.

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