EDMONTON — Two days after Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid channeled his inner Yogi Berra by asking fans to stick with the team because “it’s not over ’til it’s over,” Edmonton staved off elimination and a Stanley Cup Final sweep Saturday night by pounding the Florida Panthers 8-1 at an electric Rogers Place.
McDavid scored his first goal of the series and added three assists to break Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record for assists in a single postseason (32). Dylan Holloway added two goals for the Oilers, and Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique, Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod had the others. Stuart Skinner made 32 saves.
McDavid has 23 points in nine games after a loss this postseason, passing Doug Gilmour’s 20 in 1993 for the most in one playoff year in NHL history.
He leads the league with 38 postseason points, which is the most points in a playoff year among active players. Evgeni Malkin had 36 in 2009.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored for the Panthers, whose six-game win streak is history. The loss came after the families of players and staff chartered to Edmonton on Saturday in case there was to be a Stanley Cup celebration in enemy territory.
Instead, the Oilers became the fourth team in a row to win Game 4 to extend a series after dropping the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final. The others were the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, the New York Rangers in 2014 and the New Jersey Devils in 2012.
“It only counts as one win,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “It doesn’t matter how much you lose (by), 2-1 or 8-1, or you win 2-1 or 8-1. … Obviously, we need to bounce back and recover now and think about the next one.”
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