The Edmonton Oilers suddenly have the edge following a 4-3 overtime win over the defending champion Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in Game 1 of their rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
The series resumes Friday at Edmonton before shifting to Florida on Monday in a cross-continental showdown of the NHL’s last teams standing.
The Panthers are making their third straight Final appearance and seeking to become the second team this decade in winning consecutive titles after their Sunshine State rival Tampa Bay Lighting did so in 2020 and ’21. Meantime, Oilers captain Connor McDavid is looking to hoist the Cup for the first time in his dominant career.
Here’s a by the numbers look at the series entering Game 2:
1
The loss was Florida’s first in 32 playoff games under coach Paul Maurice in which the Panthers led at either the first or second intermission. Florida led 2-1 through the first period and 3-2 entering the third.
3
By clinching Game 1 with a power-play goal 19:29 into overtime, Leon Draisaitl scored his third overtime goal of the playoffs to tie a single-season postseason record. Oilers forward Corey Perry did so with Anaheim in 2017, while Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk score three OT goals in 2023.
11
This is the 11th rematch in the final in league history and the first since Pittsburgh and Detroit in 2009. Edmonton and the New York Islanders also had one in 1984. Each of those series saw the result flip from the previous year.
The other two rematches since the expansion era began in 1967 were Montreal sweeps of Boston in 1977 and ’78 and St. Louis in ’68 and ’69.
50
Draisaitl scored twice in reaching the career 50-goal plateau, which ranks sixth on the Oilers list and one behind Esa Tikkanen. Meantime, McDavid had two assists to give him 102 in the playoffs, tying Glenn Anderson for fourth on the franchise list.
52
Home teams are 52-10 when winning Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Overall, 65 of the past 80 teams to win Game 1 have gone on to win the title.
98
This marked the 98th Cup Final game to be decided in overtime, and first since Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe scored to seal a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the 2023 series. Vegas went on to win the Cup in five games.
2,543
The 2,543 miles (4,092 kilometers) between Sunrise, Florida, and Edmonton, Alberta, is — for the second year in a row — the longest distance between finalists in NHL history. It’s a roughly six-hour flight each way for the teams, which will be especially challenging going back to western Canada for Game 5 without an extra travel day after Game 4.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
