Oilers Did Something No Other Team Has Done in a Stanley Cup Final

Write down June 12, 2025, as a date to remember in hockey history. The Edmonton Oilers will go in the Stanley Cup Final record books, becoming the first team ever to win after trailing 3-0 at the end of the first period. Prior to Game 4 on Thursday night, teams with that lead going into the second period were 37-0. Now, they’re 37-1.

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In front of a stunned crowd in Florida, the Oilers stormed back to tie the game in regulation. They added another on a Jake Walman howitzer to take a 4-3 lead, only to see Sam Reinhart score with 19.5 seconds left to tie it back up at 4-4. In the third overtime of this series, the Oilers capped off the miraculous comeback when Leon Draisaitl scored the overtime winner. He capitalized on a smart line change and threw a backhand on net that went off a Florida defender and through Sergei Bobrovsky.

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Oilers earned a 5-4 victory, evening the series at 2-2.

“That’s what we do,” Draisaitl said postgame. “We’re a resilient group. We’re never going to quit, no matter what.”

Are the Oilers The Comeback Kids?

It was the latest chapter in a postseason filled with improbable moments for the Oilers, who have been coming back from deficits in every series of these playoffs. Their four unanswered goals in the Final were the most impressive yet, with Pierre LeBrun of TSN suggesting this group now knows they can do anything. With their new confidence, it’s hard to imagine them being stopped in a best-of-three with home ice advantage.

Just a year ago, the Oilers pulled off one of only four 3-0 series comebacks in NHL history. They wound up falling short in Game 7, but this team knows what they are capable of. Now, they’ve joined an elite group again — just the seventh team to rally from a three-goal deficit and win in a Stanley Cup Final game, and only the second road team to do it in over 550 SCF games, the last being Montreal in 1919.

Corey Perry rallied the troops during the first intermission after what might have been Edmonton’s worst period of playoff hockey. Draisaitl said of Perry’s first intermission speech: “When Corey speaks up, you listen.” The Oilers did, and were a completely different hockey team in the final two frames. Ironically, Perry’s goal with 18 seconds left in Game 2 is the latest goal to ever be scored to tie a game in Finals history. Reinhart’s goal with 19.5 seconds left was the second-latest.

It was close at times to being out of reach for Edmonton. Florida almost scored on a few occasions, forcing Calvin Pickard to be fantastic in relief or the post to offer an assist. At the end of the day, they don’t care how, just that you got the job done.

The Oilers have another job to do. Win at home in Game 5 and get one more win in the series.

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