2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final: Winners and losers from Game 2, including Evan Rodrigues

Evan Rodrigues scored a pair of goal-scorer’s goals in Game 2, impressive for a middle-six forward who had 12 goals during the regular season. And these were massive goals, too. He wired a left-wing shot past Stuart Skinner 3:11 into the third period to snap a 1-1 tie, and then blew past Oilers defenders down the middle of the ice to neatly deflect an Anton Lundell power-play pass up and over Skinner at 12:26 to make it 3-1. Rodrigues now has three goals in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final.

Not only was Leon Draisaitl held off the score sheet for a second straight game, the Oilers center could face supplementary discipline for a high hit to the jaw against Aleksander Barkov that knocked the Panthers center out of the game at 10:32 of the third period. He received a minor penalty and the Panthers scored on the power play to take a 3-1 lead. To add to the mix, Draisaitl was a turnover machine, his five giveaways most for any skater in Game 2.

The Panthers goalie allowed a goal on the first shot he faced after shutting the Oilers out in Game 1. And it wasn’t pretty. Sergei Bobrovsky was beaten clean through the five-hole on a 4-on-4 shot by Mattias Ekholm at 11:17 of the first period. And then he closed the door. Bobrovsky finished with 18 saves, stopping all 12 shots he faced in the third period, to improve to 14-5 in these playoffs.

Warren Foegele was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing Eetu Luostarinen at 9:21 of the first period. At best, Foegele carelessly threw out his knee and caught the Panthers forward in the thigh, briefly knocking him out of the game. At worst, he targeted Luostarinen and tried to hurt him. NHL Department of Player Safety is taking a long look at this one.

Niko Mikkola has 10 goals in just under 300 NHL games, regular season and postseason. The 6-foot-5 defenseman scored the biggest goal of his career in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, hammering a drop pass from Anton Lundell off the rush low glove-side past Stuart Skinner to tie the game 1-1 at 9:34 of the second period. This was just seconds after he nearly made the Loser list. Earlier in the shift, Mikkola whipped a blind backhand pass in his own end that went directly on goal and was stopped by an alert Sergei Bobrovsky. Mikkola shook his head in frustration, rejoined the play and finished with his second goal of the postseason.

Evan Bouchard was a mess in Game 2 for the Oilers. Yes, he picked up an assists on Mattias Ekholm’s goal and did play a game-high 30:40 in ice time. But his giveaway on Evan Rodrigues’ game-winning goal was egregious, and seven of his nine shot attempts either missed the net or were blocked. Then he was completely thrown off his game, getting involved repeatedly in scrums with the likes of Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad, which is not his game at all.

In Florida, they call Anton Lundell “Baby Barkov” because his two-way play mirros that of the Panthers captain. It was all on display in Game 2, when Lundell had two primary assists and played a huge role in helping shut down the high-octane Oilersa offense. After Aleksander Barkov was hurt, Lundell stepped up in a shutdown role the final half of the third period to help the Panthers grab a 2-0 series lead.

Oilers forwards combined for six shots on goal in Game 2. Six. That’s a typical night for Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl alone. Only three forwards recorded a single shot — McDavid had three, Draisaitl two and Zach Hyman one. McDavid is the only Oilers forward with a point (assist) in two games. That’s not how the Oilers will win this series. They need more, much more, from the entire forward group.

Aaron Ekblad had an injury scare in the first period, when he appeared to hurt his ankle battling with Connor McDavid along the boards. Thought he left the game, the Panthers defenseman returned and logged a rugged 20:50 in ice time. Ekblad was rewarded when he scored his first goal of these playoffs, into an empty net, to finish off the 4-1 win.

The Oilers were 0-for-4 on the power play in Game and are now a troubling 0-for-7 in the series against a Panthers penalty kill that completely shut down the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final. The Oilers have dropped to 32.8 percent on the power play and have had issues since the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars. That’s a big problem because they are not generating nearly enough 5v5 against the Panthers. They need to get the power play going or face a quick out in the Stanley Cup Final.