Edmonton Oilers at Florida Panthers

· National Hockey League

Edmonton Oilers

5-11-1

Final
3 - 5

Florida Panthers

12-5-1

Mikkola scores twice as Panthers overcome 2-goal night from McDavid to rally past Oilers 5-3

Connor McDavid nets two goals against Panthers

Stenlund had a goal and two assists for the Panthers, who have won six consecutive games at home and are 7-1-0 in their last eight games. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett also scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots.

Connor McDavid scored twice for the Oilers. Evander Kane also scored for Edmonton, and Calvin Pickard — making his first start since March 27, 2022 — stopped 27 shots.

Edmonton jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by McDavid and Kane. Verhaeghe and Mikkola tied it up for Florida, and McDavid scored on a penalty shot 5 minutes into the second period for a 3-2 lead.

It was the 52nd multigoal game of McDavid’s career and his first of the season. He was due for a breakout; the four goals he had entering Monday night represented the fewest he’d had through 14 games played to start any of his nine NHL seasons.

He was also due for a big game at Florida — McDavid entered Monday with only one goal in five appearances on the Panthers’ home ice.

But Mikkola tied it up for a second time just 1:08 after the penalty shot, and Stenlund put the Panthers up for good with 6:18 left in the second.

Mikkola had two goals, total, in his 148 games played including playoffs entering Monday — spanning 2,559 minutes of ice time for the Finnish defenseman.

It was Florida's second successful rally from a two-goal deficit this season, after coming from 2-0 down to top Seattle 3-2 on Oct. 28. Edmonton wasted a two-goal lead for third time this season and the second in as many games; the Oilers blew a 2-0 lead in what became a 6-4 loss Saturday at Tampa Bay.

The Panthers improved to 10-0-0 when leading with 5 minutes left in regulation. Bennett sealed it with an empty-netter with 42.6 seconds remaining.

Florida was without captain Aleksander Barkov, who is listed as day-to-day. He took a knee-to-knee hit in Florida's win at Anaheim on Friday, and tests over the weekend showed he avoided serious injury.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Visit Carolina on Wednesday.

Panthers: Host Boston on Wednesday.

Regular Season Series

FLA leads series 1-0

Scoring Summary

Goal	1st Period 5:59	Connor McDavid Goal (5) Snap Shot, assists: Leon Draisaitl (16), Evan Bouchard (13)
Goal	1st Period 9:00	Evander Kane Goal (8) Snap Shot, assists: Derek Ryan (2), Ryan McLeod (3)
Goal	1st Period 10:36	Carter Verhaeghe Goal (8) Wrist Shot, assists: Sam Reinhart (12)
Goal	1st Period 15:53	Niko Mikkola Goal (2) Snap Shot, assists: Kevin Stenlund (1)
Goal	2nd Period 5:00	Connor McDavid Goal (6) Snap Shot, assists: none
Goal	2nd Period 6:08	Niko Mikkola Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Carter Verhaeghe (7)
Goal	2nd Period 13:42	Kevin Stenlund Goal (5) Wrist Shot, assists: Eetu Luostarinen (3)
Goal	3rd Period 19:17	Sam Bennett Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Kevin Stenlund (2), Gustav Forsling (4)

Statistics

EDM		FLA
15	Blocked Shots	16
22	Hits	30
2	Takeaways	8
29	Shots	33
0	Power Play Goals	1
3	Power Play Opportunities	4
0.0	Power Play Percentage	25.0
0	Short Handed Goals	0
0	Shootout Goals	0
30	Faceoffs Won	41
42.3	Faceoff Win Percent	57.7
6	Giveaways	9
9	Total Penalties	7
29	Penalty Minutes	17

Florida Panthers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Mackie Samoskevich, RW	Day-To-Day	Dec 21
Matthew Tkachuk, LW	Injured Reserve	Nov 26

Edmonton Oilers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Tristan Jarry, G	Injured Reserve	Dec 21
Connor Clattenburg, C	Injured Reserve	Dec 21
Jake Walman, D	Injured Reserve	Dec 11
Kasperi Kapanen, RW	Injured Reserve	Dec 8
Noah Philp, C	Injured Reserve	Dec 8