Edmonton Oilers Are a Team of Destiny

But Edmonton, which had trailed by two goals early in the second period, battled back to tie things up at 3-3, before Leon Draisaitl scored the winning goal at 19:29 of overtime.

For 31 straight instances, Florida’s opponent had tried and failed to do what the Oilers pulled off on Wednesday night. Fittingly, Draisaitl’s goal that ended the streak came with 31 seconds remaining in sudden death.

Victories Over Kings in Round 1

During the 2024-25 regular season, Los Angeles had a record of 35-1-2 when taking a lead into the third period. The Kings then opened the postseason with consecutive victories over Edmonton, having led after 40 minutes in both games. Add it all up, and the Kings were winning 92.5% (37 out of 40) of the time when they led through two periods.

In Game 3 at Rogers Place, Edmonton trailed by a score of 4-3 with less than eight minutes remaining before Oilers forward Evander Kane tallied to pull his team even at 4-4. Kings coach Jim Hiller challenged for goaltender interference, but lost, resulting in a power play for the Oilers. Edmonton subsequently scored with the man advantage to take the lead, then added two more goals en route to a stunning 7-4 come-from-behind victory.

Two nights later in Game 4, Los Angeles led the Oilers 3-1 with just over 12 minutes left in the third period. Evan Bouchard tallied at 7:51 to pull Edmonton within one goal, then scored with 29 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime, where Draisaitl scored at 18:18 of sudden death.

Not only had the Oilers overcome Los Angeles’ near-perfect record when leading after two periods, they’d done it two games in a row.

All Those Comebacks

In Game 5 against the Kings, Edmonton trailed 1-0 before going on to win 3-1. The Oilers fell behind 2-1 early in Game 6, then rallied to close out the series with a 6-4 victory over the Kings.

Against the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round, the Oilers trailed 2-0 in the first period of Game 1 before scoring four unanswered goals for a 4-2 triumph. Vegas also jumped out front in Game 2, leading 1-0, but Edmonton ultimately came back to prevail by a score of 5-4, with Draisaitl scoring the winner in overtime.

Six games, six come-from-behind victories. There had previously never been a team in NHL history with five straight comeback wins in a single postseason, let alone half a dozen.

With their latest rally, Wednesday against Florida, the Oilers now have seven come-from-behind victories in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That accounts for more than half their wins.

Teams simply don’t do what the Oilers are doing. Time after time after time during this remarkable playoff run, Edmonton has faced exceptionally long odds and proceeded to defy them. You can call it destiny or just call it a coincidence, but the Oilers could very well soon be calling themselves Stanley Cup champs.

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