<p><p>EDMONTON, Alberta – In the windows of a storefront on 104 Avenue, one block down and across the street from Rogers Place, a new sign appeared Saturday morning.</p></p><p><p>Nestled between paintings on the glass that read “Let’s go Oilers” and “We want the Cup,” a small orange sign simply read “Believe” – inspired by the sign hung by the titular character in the TV show “Ted Lasso.” No one passing by needed an explanation of the intention.</p></p><p><p>The Edmonton Oilers trailed the Florida Panthers three games to none in the Stanley Cup finals heading into Game 4 on Saturday night, and they needed all the belief they could get. Internally, the team knew they were close; one bounce here or there, one twist in their luck, and they wouldn’t have been on the brink of elimination.</p></p><p><p>Their self-belief was emphatically validated Saturday night with an 8-1 rout of the Panthers in Game 4, extending the finals to Game 5 on Tuesday night in South Florida.</p></p><p><p>“If there’s a team that can do it, if there’s a group of men I want to do this with, it’s the guys in that room,” Edmonton Coach Kris Knoblauch said Saturday morning. “From what I’ve seen through the season, how resilient they are, perseverance, their focus, their attitude, I’m really excited for the next 10 days.”</p></p><p><p>In front of another raucous crowd at Rogers Place, the Oilers extended their season to at least one more game.</p></p><p><p>Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, the difference-maker for much of the first three games, allowed five goals on 16 shots before being replaced early in the second period by Anthony Stolarz, who stopped 16 of 19 in relief. Stuart Skinner made 32 saves for Edmonton.</p></p><p><p>Mattias Janmark put the Oilers ahead 3:11 into the contest with a shorthanded goal into a wide-open net. Bobrovsky slid out to challenge Connor Brown as he brought the puck up the ice, but Brown waited for Bobrovsky to commit before passing the puck behind the outstretched goalie to Janmark for the finish. Janmark’s initial attempt may have been headed wide, but it deflected off Florida captain Aleksander Barkov – a bit of luck that the Oilers lacked in the first three games.</p></p><p><p>Adam Henrique, whose last goal in the Stanley Cup finals was in Game 6 in 2012, gave Edmonton its first two-goal lead of the series with a deflection at 7:48 of the first period.</p></p><p><p>The Panthers halved the Oilers’ lead less than four minutes later on a tip from Vladimir Tarasenko that bounced off the ice before beating Skinner, and Carter Verhaeghe – the player Florida always leans on for a clutch goal in a big moment – had a chance to tie the score on a two-on-one rush with Sam Bennett on the very next shift. But Skinner slid across to make the stop, robbing Verhaeghe with his glove for the kind of statement save that can alter a game.</p></p><p><p>Dylan Holloway extended Edmonton’s lead back to two goals with a highlight-reel finish around Bobrovsky late in the first period, taking a pass from Leon Draisaitl – who recorded his first point of the series with the assist – and pushing a backhand finish past Bobrovsky’s glove.</p></p><p><p>Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the series 1:13 into the second period with a wrist shot that beat Bobrovsky through a narrow window between his shoulder and the near post. Part of the issue for the Oilers in the first three games had been the relative silence of McDavid and Draisaitl; the two superstars were determined not to repeat that in Game 4.</p></p><p><p>Bobrovsky, who was exalted by his home crowd at Amerant Bank Arena in Games 1 and 2, was taunted by the crowd chanting “Sergei! Sergei!” after McDavid’s tally. Bobrovsky earned a sarcastic cheer for stopping a rolling puck moments later.</p></p><p><p>And when Darnell Nurse made it 5-1 at the 4:59 mark, leading to Bobrovsky being pulled for the first time in the playoffs, the cheer when Stolarz skated onto the ice rivaled the noise after an Edmonton goal.</p></p><p><p><span class="print_trim">The Oilers’ power play broke an 0-for-12 drought with a goal from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a five-on-three advantage at 13:03 of the second. By then, the rout was on.</span></p></p><p><p><span class="print_trim">Edmonton began the third period with a penalty kill, one of three penalties it killed in the final frame, and weathered a brief push from the Panthers, but the outcome of the game was clearly never in doubt.</span></p></p><p><p><span class="print_trim">Holloway added an exclamation point with his second of the game with 5:49 remaining. McDavid’s assist on Holloway’s goal, his 32nd of the postseason, broke Wayne Gretzky’s record for the most assists in the playoffs in NHL history.</span></p></p><p><p><span class="print_trim">Edmonton wasn’t finished; after Holloway’s goal, Ryan McLeod added one of his own with 3:19 left to continue the statement. The Oilers still have a long way to go to get back in the series, but after preaching “one game at a time” for the past two days, they took the first step on that path with a dominant performance in Game 4.</span></p></p>
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