The Oilers won Game 5 on the road and head back home with a lot of confidence as their captain makes a pretty good case for the Conn Smythe.

Connor McDavid. Photo by Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

SUNRISE, FLA – It was a banner night for guys named ‘Connor’ as McDavid and Brown came through big for the Oilers, who all of a sudden seem like a threat to make a major comeback in the Stanley Cup final thanks to a 5-3 victory over Florida in Game 5. The series now shifts back to Edmonton and even though the Oilers are still one loss away from elimination, they’re feeling pretty good right now after a second straight win.

“Looking at these last two games, we probably got what we deserved more than we did the first three,” said defenseman Mattias Ekholm. “We’re playing to our strengths and doing all the little things it takes. You look at the last five minutes when we were trying to hang on and I don’t think they had a shot other than from the outside. It was a good win for us, but we have more work to do.”

For the second straight game, the Oilers broke the ice with a shorthanded goal. The penalty-kill has been an absolute strength for Edmonton in the post-season and Connor Brown has been integral. He got that first marker tonight after blowing past Aleksander Barkov. It’s been a fantastic turnaround for Brown, who has been excellent for the Oilers after a regular season where he infamously didn’t score a goal until the 73rd game of the campaign.

“It’s been obviously quite the season for me,” Brown said. “To go from where I was to where I am and to contribute on the biggest stage is what you want to do as a player. I’m having fun.”

As for McDavid, there’s little doubt He Is Who We Thought He Was: Four points, including the empty-net dagger goal, one game after scoring four points in Game 4. Based on his big-game play and his raw production (42 points in 23 playoff games), it feels like McDavid has already sewn up the Conn Smythe – whether Edmonton completes the comeback or not.

“He just put us on his back,” Ekholm said. “He’s the best in the world, there’s nothing else you can say about him. What I’m most impressed with is the bigger the moment, the bigger the performance he puts on. We’re on the brink of elimination and he puts up four points two games in a row. He wants to be the guy and he is the guy.”

The assist de resistance came on the eventual winner, where McDavid carved through the Florida line on the power play before dishing off to Corey Perry for the tuck.

“To attack the middle like that, pop out and slip by guys and have the poise to pass it over to Pers…There’s one person on the planet who can make that play and he did,” Brown said. “He’s showing composure, he’s showing why he has the reputation he has and it’s growing.”

Now it’s the Panthers who must lick their wounds after building up an initial 3-0 series lead. Once again the details weren’t very strong for Florida, though Matthew Tkachuk and Evan Rodrigues nearly willed them back in Game 5. Sergei Bobrovsky had his second straight shaky outing (not as bad as Game 4, but playing worse would have been impossible), typified by McDavid’s 3-0 goal from a bad angle.

Perhaps most frightening is the fact the Oilers have been playing so well the past two games.

“We took care of the middle of the ice, which is so important in those moments where they were pushing,” Ekholm said. “We won a lot of wall battles and got the puck out of the zone, chipped the puck out when we needed to, which some people might call maturity in our team. I’m happy with the way we defended. Here we are, getting some bounces, getting some results. It shifts quickly; that’s the beauty of the playoffs, right?”