The Edmonton Oilers suffered their second straight defeat, falling 5-3 on the road against the Florida Panthers Monday night.
The Oilers took the lead when Connor McDavid took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and banged a one-timer from a sharp angle past Sergei Bobrovsky. Evander Kane registered his eighth of the season three minutes later to make it 2-0 Edmonton. The Panthers tied it thanks to a power play goal by Carter Verhaeghe and a long wrister from Niko Mikkola.
McDavid was taken down on a breakaway five minutes into the third to earn a penalty shot. He flicked a shot past Bobrovsky’s blocker for his third career penalty shot goal. Only 1:08 later, Mikkola found some room down the left side after Philip Broberg stumbled over a broken stick. Mikkola’s pass went in off a sliding Darnell Nurse to make it 3-3. Kevin Stenlund finished off a goal mouth scramble to give the Panthers the lead with 6:18 left in the second.
Pickard held the Oilers within a goal when he stopped Evan Rodrigues on a breakaway halfway through the third. Sam Bennett would seal the game with an empty netter.
The Oilers went 0/3 on the power play after going 0/5 Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Both Bobrovsky and Pickard finished with 28 saves.
The Oilers will visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday (Face-off Show at 3:30 p.m. Game at 5 p.m.)