Record-breaking Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to help the Edmonton Oilers avoid elimination with an 8-1 win against the visiting Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
With his third helper, McDavid set the NHL record for most assists in a single post-season with 32. He had been tied with Wayne Gretzky, who totalled 31 assists in 1988 when he and the Oilers won the Stanley Cup.
Dylan Holloway had two goals and an assist and Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist for Edmonton on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
Adam Henrique, Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod also scored, while Stuart Skinner made 32 saves.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped just 11 of 16 shots before he was replaced by Anthony Stolarz, who finished with 16 saves for Florida.
The Oilers never trailed, building a 3-1 lead in the first period.
The Panthers went on the first power play of the game when Nurse was whistled for tripping Sam Bennett, but it was Edmonton who scored to take a 1-0 lead at 3:11.
Connor Brown stole the puck in the Florida zone to spark a two-on-one rush. He carried the puck below the goal line before passing it back out front to Janmark with Bobrovsky out of the crease. Janmark banked his shot off Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov for his third goal of the playoffs.
The Oilers extended the lead to 2-0 at 7:48. Mattias Ekholm passed to Janmark at the Florida blue line. Janmark spun away from Panthers defender Niko Mikkola and headed into Florida’s zone before passing to Henrique, who redirected the puck high into the net.
Florida cut the deficit to 2-1 at 11:26 when Gustav Forsling took a slap shot from just inside the blue line that Tarasenko tipped into the net.
Skinner made his best save of the game 39 seconds later when he stuck out his left arm to turn away a shot by Carter Verhaeghe.
The Oilers then increased their lead to 3-1 at 14:48.
Brett Kulak made a blue-line-to-blue-line pass to Leon Draisaitl, who followed up with a pass to Holloway, who slid a backhand between Bobrovsky’s pads.
Edmonton blew the game open by outscoring the Panthers 3-0 in the second period.
McDavid made it 4-1 at 1:13 and Nurse pushed the lead to 5-1 at 4:59. Nugent-Hopkins followed with the first power-play goal of the series for Edmonton, extending the lead to 6-1 at 13:03.
Holloway scored his second goal at 14:11 of the third, and McLeod scored at 16:41 for the 8-1 final score.
Game 5 is set for Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) in Sunrise, Florida, where the home side will start with a 3-1 series lead.