Edmonton Oilers looking to ‘drag them back to Alberta’ in Stanley Cup Final

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After falling behind 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers came into Game 4 as dead men walking.

But they at least came out of it as dead men running, following an electrified 8-1 win over the Florida Panthers to stave off elimination Saturday.

Oh, these Oilers are still chewing on their last meal while their necks are on the chopping block, to be sure. One more slip at any moment over the next three games and they’ll meet the executioner’s blade.

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But for now, at least, they’ve breathed a little bit of life into a series that had looked entirely lopsided, as far as results went.

On Saturday, it was Sergei Bobrovsky who ended up getting the axe five minutes into the second period after allowing five goals on 16 shots.

Florida’s goalie had been nothing short of brilliant over the first eight periods of the series, as the Oilers were outscored 11-1. But over the last four periods, Edmonton outscored the Panthers 10-1 heading back to Sunrise, Fla., for Game 5 on Tuesday (6 p.m., CBC, Sportsnet).

Unfortunately for the Oilers, goal differential is not how advantage is determined an NHL playoff series. Nor will it make a difference once the scoreboard is reset to 0-0 in Game 5.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s just one win, that’s all it is,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who recorded a goal and three assists to contribute to his playoff-leading 38 points (six goals, 32 assists) and set an NHL assists record in a single post-season. “It doesn’t matter if you scored eight or if you scored one, it’s just one win.

“And we’ve got to go to Florida and do a job, and drag them back to Alberta.”

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Well, the Oilers scored eight in this one, after having opened the series with a 3-0 shutout loss.

It’s not necessarily a case of it being as good a time as any for the offence to wake up, but more like there was no more time. And there still isn’t.

“I’m sure outside, the belief starts to grow a little bit, but we’re just focused on one game,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “And we bought ourselves another couple days here.”

The goal now is to do it again. And then again, and again after that.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s one game,” said Mattias Janmark, whose short-handed goal opened the Oilers offensive floodgates for three first-period goals, followed by three more in the second. “You can look as far as you want, but we’re not getting back here unless we come out and play a really good game in Florida.

“So, that’s where our focus is going to be, for sure.”

The Oilers have to dig every bit as deep now as they did back when they got off to a 2-9-1 start to the season, when everyone had written them off the first time.

Back then, they rallied to win streaks of eight and then 16 games to push their way into the playoff picture.

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“I feel we’re most comfortable when our backs are against the wall,” said Oilers forward Connor Brown. “That’s kind of what we showed at the beginning of the year when we were dead last, our backs against the wall and we came out and had some historic runs.

“So, I think we’re a new club in that regard. When we get in a rhythm and we get playing our brand of hockey, we know what it feels like and (Saturday) night, we knew exactly what it feels like. We’re a scary club.”

It’s a good thing, too, considering they face the prospect of having to go back down to Florida not once, but twice over the next three games.

“I think we understand what it feels like,” said Brown. “I mean, they’re going to be on home ice, it’s not going to be easy.

“But we know what the kind of recipe is and now that it’s fresh in our minds, just replicate that recipe.”

Meanwhile, the Panthers will pull out all the stops in order to hoist the Stanley Cup at home in Game 5, if only to avoid a repeat of the hungry atmosphere back in Edmonton if Game 6 becomes necessary.

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“I think the biggest thing for us is not to get too high,” said Oilers forward Dylan Holloway, who recorded two goals and an assist. “Obviously, it was a massive win but we still know what the circumstances are, we’re still down 3-1.

“So, the biggest thing for us is just to forget that and still use it, knowing that we can do it, but just move forward.”

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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