‘I knew eventually, I’d probably get a chance’: Kasperi Kapanen goes from healthy scratch to playoff hero for Oilers

From Petr Klima to Fernando Pisani to David Desharnais — Edmonton loves an unlikely playoff hero.

You can add Kasperi Kapanen’s name to the list of players who have been etched into the collective memory of Oilers fans after his series-winning goal against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 on Wednesday.

The goal was Kapanen’s first since all the way back on January 23 in a 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Picked up by the Oilers from the waiver wire in November, Kapanen suited up in 57 regular-season games with Edmonton and scored five goals and 13 points.

The speedy winger was a healthy scratch through the team’s first nine playoff games and then came into the lineup for Viktor Arvidsson after the Oilers dropped Game 3 against the Golden Knights at home. Kapanen brought energy and a physical edge against Vegas and came through with a gritty goal in overtime to send the Oilers to the Western Conference Final.

Kapanen said that he understood why he wasn’t in the lineup to start the playoffs and through the team’s six-game winning streak. He also knew that an opportunity would eventually come up and that he would be “patient and ready” for when it presented itself.

“There are so many good players on this team that I understood when [head coach Kris Knoblauch] told me that I wasn’t going to start playing against [the Kings in the first round],” Kapanen said after scoring the series-winning goal for the Oilers in Game 5 against the Golden Knights. “That was fine. The team was playing really well, so we weren’t changing anything with our lineup, which was understandable. That’s the main goal. That’s the most important thing, the team winning and us advancing.

“I knew eventually that I would probably get a chance,” Kapanen continued. “Just being patient and ready. I think last game it was pretty obvious that I had a lot of energy and I was just trying to make an impact by keeping it simple. And then [in Game 5], just kind of getting lucky being in the right spot at the right time. This one feels nice.”

Scoring huge goals is nothing new for Kapanen, who said, “It’s up there” when asked if his series-winner in Game 5 was the biggest of his career.

Kapanen scored in overtime to win gold for Finland at the 2016 World Juniors in Helsinki, which is one of the most memorable hockey moments in the nation’s history. He also scored a double overtime goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2017 playoffs against the Washington Capitals.