Oilers fall short vs. Florida

PANTHERS 7 OILERS 5

On a night when they celebrated the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers as the greatest team in 100 years of the NHL, we got a throwback — 12 goals in 72 shots, just like the old days.

The Florida Panthers outlasted the Oilers 7-5 on a night when each team scored on a penalty shot — Leon Draisaitl on James Reimer and Evgenii Dadonov on Cam Talbot. Dadonov ended up with two on the night while Vincent Trocheck had the hat trick for the Panthers with two coming on the power play and one into the empty net.

Defenceman Aaron Ekblad had the other marker against the NHL’s worst home penalty killing unit, with Denis Malgin getting the other past Talbot, who faced 35 shots.

Connor McDavid, Patrick Maroon, Drake Caggiula and Anton Slepyshev scored on Reimer as the Oilers dropped their fourth straight game after blowing out Tampa Bay 6-2 a week ago here.

Once again, the Oilers were done in by their abysmal home penalty kill, which gave up three goals, and they gave up the first goal of the game for the 35th time in 55 games.

Talbot didn’t make nearly enough saves, either.

In the wide-open second period featuring 27 shots and four goals, Draisaitl got the Oilers’ 13th alltime penalty shot goal in 41 tries after being tripped by defenceman Mike Matheson on a short-handed breakaway to make it 2-1.

But the rookie Malgin got that back when his 20-footer glanced off Talbot’s mitt.

Caggiula tipped Kris Russell’s shot to give Edmonton a 3-2 lead, but 13 seconds later, Dadonov’s 35-footer beat Talbot low gloveside to make it 3-3.

After a slow first 17 minutes, the teams traded goals 49 seconds apart with Ekblad and Maroon scoring. Ekblad banked a shot off fellow defenceman Oscar Klefbom on a power play after a wide shot by Malgin off the end-boards, another nail in the Oilers home PK. Then Maroon tucked a blue-paint rebound under Reimer for his first goal in eight games.