Calvin Pickard had yet to see much action.
The Oilers goaltender entered the fray after Thursday’s disastrous first period where his team failed to meet the moment and left Stuart Skinner hung out to dry down 3-0 to the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final.
Edmonton clawed back within two early in the second period on a power-play goal off the stick of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Pickard was then — almost out of nowhere — forced to make a save off a turnover that will be remembered for a long time if the Oilers end up hoisting their sixth championship.
The former journeyman netminder denied Anton Lundell on that breakaway to keep the score at 3-1 before making a number of huge stops that set the stage for Leon Draisaitl’s overtime winner as Edmonton defeated Florida 5-4 to even the best-of-seven title series 2-2.
“Gets you feeling better,” Pickard said of that save on Lundell. “After that it was pretty steady. They had some looks, but we had a ton of looks too and our resolve was fantastic.”
The 33-year-old has bailed the Oilers out before this spring.
Pickard replaced a shaky Skinner in the first round of the playoffs with Edmonton down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Kings. He won his next six starts — with plenty of goal support from a high-flying roster led by Draisaitl and Connor McDavid — before getting injured in Game 2 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“It was frustrating,” said Pickard, who finished with 22 stops. “Things were going pretty well, and then (Skinner) hopped in there and played great. I felt for him … he came ready to play (Thursday), made some big saves early. We just didn’t have it as a team early.
“If he was playing behind our team in the second and third and overtime, he would’ve done what I did.”
What the Moncton, N.B., product did was pretty impressive.
After that stop by Pickard on Lundell, the Oilers made it 3-2 on a terrific shot upstairs from Darnell Nurse before Vasily Podkolzin tied things.
Pickard was there to deny an Evan Rodrigues redirection late in the second and again on an Aaron Ekblad power-play chance before the intermission.
“Unbelievable,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Outstanding to be able to come in off the bench, make some massive saves in huge times.”
Jake Walman gave Edmonton a 4-3 lead with under seven minutes to go in the third, but Sam Reinhart forced OT when he scored with 19.5 seconds left in regulation.
Pickard, however, saved his best for the extra period when he got enough of Sam Bennett’s shot with his glove to deflect it off the crossbar.
“Read it pretty well,” he said of the sequence. “And then I looked in my glove and it wasn’t in there … heard the crowd oohing and ahhing.
“It was a good bounce, and then we got one.”
That came later in OT when Draisaitl’s attempted pass off the rush glanced off a Florida defender and found its way past Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Oilers, however, wouldn’t have been there if not for Pickard.
“It’s hard to describe the situation that he gets put in,” said Draisaitl, whose team will host Game 5 on Saturday at what will be an incandescent Rogers Place. “We’re down 3-0. He’s coming in, he’s cold. It’s not easy and he makes those stops at the key moments that we really need them. He’s one of the best in the league at making the right save at the right time.
“He’s been nothing but spectacular for us.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch said the move to Pickard wasn’t about the play off Skinner, who stopped 14 of the 17 shots he faced after allowing five goals in both Games 3 and 4.
“Our team was flat,” he said. “We needed to change things up.”
Just the sixth goaltender in NHL history to win a Cup final game in relief, Pickard has only played 184 regular-season games for six different NHL teams since being selected in the second round of the 2010 draft by the Colorado Avalanche.
“He’s been a journeyman goalie,” Knoblauch said. “He’s been through it all, and right now he’s been enjoying the ride. The ride last year of just becoming a regular NHL goaltender again and then getting as many starts as he’s been getting, and he’s earned them.
“I’m not giving him any starts. He’s deserved them.”
There’s likely another one coming this weekend.
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