Too many whistles in the first period, not enough whistles in the third period, two periods of overtime, Game 2 was a rollercoaster that ended on a sour note – here’s the recap.

The Panthers went to the powerplay 37 seconds into the match as Evander Kane high sticked Carter Verhaeghe. Mattias Ekholm dropped his stick on the ground during a board battle, and the Panthers were allowed to get away with blatant interference when Matthew Tkachuk knocked away Mattias Ekholm’s stick. There was no call and the Panthers would open the scoring shortly after.

Edmonton got a makeup call immediately after – Draisaitl almost scored off the draw – and then Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a tripping call to cut the Oiler’s powerplay advantage short.

No scoring either way on the odd-man advantage, but Florida was driving play. Draisaitl got caught cheating for a breakout in the defensive end and it almost cost the Oilers a second goal against; Finally, the Oilers found the rush they wanted – Kane fired a wrist shot that rung both posts before Sergei Bobrovsky could raise his glove hand.

Two minutes later, Tkachuk and Nurse found themselves in the box on coincidental roughing minors. McDavid entered the zone with incredible speed and left a drop pass for Evan Bouchard – who fired a shot into a shinpad, before collecting his rebound and sending a second bomb past Bobrovsky to give Edmonton their first lead of the night.

The Panthers striked back quickly on a defensive breakdown – the Edmonton defence lost track of their assignments and Florida was given a cross-seam pass with a wide open net.

Sam Bennett ran into Stuart Skinner and proceeded to fall onto Skinner’s ankle – luckily Skinner didn’t seem to be hurt on the play. They play was gross, but not unexpected, it’s the third time this playoffs where Bennett has purposefully attempted to injure a goaltender. Playing with an edge is one thing, consistently attempting to blow up the opposing net minder’s ACL is another.

The Oilers were absolutely irate from the sequence, and Bennett was rightfully penalized on the play. Edmonton assaulted the Panthers with full force, and Connor McDavid willed a goal into existence as he skated circles around both Barkov and Ekblad before finding Draisaitl for a one-timer to make the score 3-2 Edmonton.

Florida came back to tie the game after sustaining pressure in Edmonton’s end for the first half of the second period. The Oilers struggled to navigate the long change and eventually it would bite them when Dmitri Kulikov beat Skinner through a screen on an extended Panthers push.

The Oilers seemed unable to regain composure and allowed Brad Marchand to score a short handed goal on a chaotic powerplay where Florida seemed to outnumber Edmonton across the ice. The shorthanded goal completely killed Edmonton’s momentum, sucked the energy out of the crowd, and gave Florida a 4-3 lead – not great.

It took the Oilers the next half hour to claw back into the game. With half a minute left to play, Edmonton won an offensive draw with Skinner pulled, Jake Walman sent a shot from the point that was deflected out into the slot by Bobrovsky, and with 17.8 seconds left to play, Corey Perry battled through Eetu Luostarinen to score the equalizer and force Game 2 into overtime.

Sam Reinhart had a chance to end the game on a wide open breakaway, but he shot the puck wide and hit the post. Shortly after the Panthers had a wide open net, but shot the puck past the net behind Stuart Skinner. The Oilers iced the puck twice after and played some creative games to give Nurse, Kulak, and Kane some rest before heading back to the ice.

The Oilers held it together for most of second overtime, but Brad Marchand got yet another breakaway and was able to beat Skinner five hole for the game winning goal – and it wasn’t a good one, Skinner is going to want that one back.

The Oilers now leave with a split heading back to Florida for Game 3. There’s a lot to learn from this game. Edmonton lost their lead because they were unable to manage the long change during the second period, and they had to spend most of the game chasing the lead because of it. They got better in overtime, when the Panthers were tired, but they gave up a breakaway in late overtime that sealed their fates.

It was a dissapointing result to leave this game without a win after forcing overtime so late, but the Oilers continue to show that they can go toe-to-toe with the defending Stanley Cup champions – they just need to clean up the second period and play their game. Game 3 will be played Monday.