Oilers end winless streak with 6-3 victory over the Panthers in Cup rematch

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jack Roslovic scored twice, Evan Bouchard had three assists and the Edmonton Oilers topped the Florida Panthers 6-3 on Saturday night in a matchup of the teams that played for the Stanley Cup in each of the last two seasons.

Connor McDavid and Matt Savoie had empty-netters for Edmonton to seal the win. Mattias Ekholm and Vasily Podkolzin also scored for the Oilers, who were back in Sunrise for the first time since seeing Florida celebrate its second consecutive Cup title last June.

Stuart Skinner stopped 35 shots for the Oilers, who snapped a three-game winless slide and salvaged a 3-3-1 record from their seven-game trip. The Oilers got a road regulation win for the second time this season; they were 4-8-3 away from home entering Saturday, with three of those wins in overtime or a shootout.

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Mackie Samoskevich, Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored for Florida.

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Of the 18 skaters who were in the lineup for Florida in the Cup-clinching Game 6 victory last season over the Oilers, only 10 were on the ice Saturday. Aaron Ekblad (illness, expected to play Monday) was a scratch, added to the list of injured that already had Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Dmitry Kulikov, Eetu Luostarinen, Jonah Gadjovich and Tomas Nosek — all part of the Cup-clinching group last year — on it.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky got chased in the second period after allowing four goals on 17 shots.

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Roslovic set the tone by simply flicking the puck toward the net 25 seconds into the contest and seeing it squirt through Bobrovsky’s pads for a 1-0 lead. After Lundell tied it, Roslovic struck again 36 seconds later for the goal that put the Oilers on top for good.

Podkolzin scored from a very sharp angle for a 4-1 lead, ending Bobrovsky’s night.

Up next

Oilers: Host Dallas on Tuesday.

Panthers: Visit Nashville on Monday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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