Panthers-Oilers Game 5 takeaways, early look at Game 6 - ESPN

With the Stanley Cup in the building for a second straight game, the Florida Panthers couldn't quite muster enough in Game 5 to clinch, as the Edmonton Oilers skated away with a 5-3 victory.

The game started mildly enough, with a 1-0 Oilers lead after one frame. Things got wild in the second period, with five goals combined from the two teams. While the Panthers got within one in the third, they couldn't get the equalizer, and Connor McDavid scored an empty-net goal to put the capper on the festivities.

It was a four-point night for McDavid, who continues his climb up the single-playoff points leaderboard. His 42 points in this playoff run are five shy of Wayne Gretzky (1985) for the most all time.

We're here to break it all down for you. Here are our grades for both teams, along with takeaways that stuck out the most, key players to watch and the big questions left unanswered prior to Game 6 (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+).

Florida checked in late to Game 5 and ran out of runway to seal the deal on the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship — again.

The Panthers gave up a shorthanded goal less than six minutes into the first period, and that appeared to deflate the team in a way where it didn't recover until well into the second frame. By then, the Panthers were already trailing by multiple goals, a deficit too difficult to climb out of at the best of times — let alone when up against a desperate opponent.

Florida did find its legs eventually and looked dangerous for most of the third period, but while the Panthers' depth skaters showed up, not enough of Florida's stars — Sam Reinhart? Aleksander Barkov? Carter Verhaeghe? — did the same. Edmonton's elite skaters performed as exactly that Tuesday. The Panthers' best better be