Connor McDavid remained pointless, so Leon Draisaitl and the other top players of the Edmonton Oilers rushed in and reduced the victory for the Edmonton Oilers to just one win.

Draisaitl made his first major contribution in the Finals by assisting on Warren Foegele's early goal, Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman scored in the second period and the Oilers forced a Game 7 by defeating the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 6 on Friday night.

“Ultimately, we're playing to win, and this will be the hardest game for us,” said Draisaitl. “We have to get back to our game.”

They are the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1945 to come from a 3-0 series deficit to tie the final. The Oilers have a chance to join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs in becoming the only NHL team to come back from a deficit and win the Stanley Cup on Monday night in Sunrise.

“It was an unwavering belief,” Hyman said. “No matter what happened all year, we always believed we could do it. No matter how bad the circumstances were, we believe we have a chance. It's been a long season of adversity that has prepared us for this. The next one will be the toughest. It feels incredible to do this in front of this crowd. Now to have a chance to win, this is our first opportunity to win.”

The chance to make hockey history and end Canada's three-decade Cup drought comes after McDavid's heroics of four points in Games 4 and 5 that pulled the Oilers back from the brink of defeat. It was the first time in his nine-year career that they won a game in which he did not score a point or take a shot on goal.

Draisaitl, his longtime running mate from Germany, who was also the league's MVP and is considered one of the best players in the world, provided the decisive spark in Game 5 after being largely ineffective against the Panthers.

“He's a horse,” said defenseman Darnell Nurse. “He's always there in the most important moments. If you look at all his playoff performances, he's one of the best there's ever been.”

Draisaitl got the puck in the middle of the ice, skated around and through the Florida defenders and put the puck on the tape of Foegele's stick for a shot that Sergei Bobrovsky could barely stop. Of course, that didn't stop the heated crowd of over 18,000 from chanting “Ser-gei! Ser-gei!” before the national anthems and throughout the evening.

The goalie everyone calls “Bob” was hardly to blame, though, as mistakes in front of him also contributed to the 2-on-1 run that ended with Henrique beating Bobrovsky on a 2-on-1 run after a perfect pass from Mattias Janmark. The Panthers in front of their goalie looked tight and timid, different from the superior force that reached the finals for the second year in a row, winning the first three games to move on the verge of the first title in franchise history.

“We still have one game left,” said Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov. “We were ready to play a seven-game series from the beginning and that doesn't change now. We are three games ahead and they have played three good games. Now it's up to us to win at home.”

Florida had just six shots on goal halfway through the game and finished with 21. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner continued his trend of being there when the Oilers needed him most, making timely saves that allowed only one goal by Aleksander Barkov less than 90 seconds into the third period.

“He was great when we needed him,” Janmark said of Skinner.

When Barkov first got the puck past him, 10 seconds after Henrique scored, the goal came off the board after Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch successfully challenged an offside. A lengthy review determined that Sam Reinhart had entered the attacking zone perhaps an inch or less ahead of the puck, prompting a loud roar from the fans.

“I actually didn't think it was that close,” said Knoblauch. “For me it was definitely offside.”

It wasn't the loudest noise at Rogers Place, and there were many candidates for that award. The decibel meter on the video screens reached 113.8 as the Oilers entered the ice to the music of Metallica's “Enter Sandman.”

The noise level must have been almost as high when Ryan McLeod and Nurse scored goals into the empty net in the final minutes, triggering chants of “We want the cup!”, “We want the cup!” and exuberant celebrations among the spectators outside.

That was the boiling point for a city whose downtown was awash in a sea of ​​blue and orange in the hours before puck drop. Friday might as well have been a holiday in Edmonton, home to nearly a million people who can now fully dream of the Oilers hanging another white championship banner from the rafters – and in the most improbable way possible.

“We're just happy that our season is continuing,” McDavid said. “That's what it's about. One game at a time, one day at a time. I'm looking forward to the next one.”