Evan Rodrigues had two of three Florida Panthers goals in the third period as the Eastern Conference champions took a 2-0 lead on the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final with Monday's 4-1 win.

Niko Mikkola also scored and Aaron Ekblad had a game-sealing empty-net goal in the final minutes as the Panthers moved two wins away from the franchise's first Stanley Cup title.

They did so by keeping Connor McDavid and Edmonton's high-powered offence in check for a second straight meeting. After being dealt a 3-0 loss in Saturday's opener of the best-of-seven series, the Oilers managed just seven shots on goal over the first two periods of Game 2 and 19 for the night.

Florida did sustain a key injury in Game 2, however, as captain and top-line centre Aleksandar Barkov did not return after taking an elbow to the head from Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl midway through the third period. 

Mattias Ekholm recorded the lone goal for the Oilers, who will attempt to reverse momentum on home ice when the series shifts to Edmonton for Thursday's Game 3.

Despite Florida owning a 22-7 shot advantage through the first two periods, the teams were locked in a 1-1 tie until Rodrigues stole an attempted clearing pass from Edmonton's Evan Bouchard in the Oilers' end and whistled a shot past goaltender Stuart Skinner 3:11 into the third.

Rodrigues struck again on the power play created by Draisaitl's roughing penalty on Barkov with 9:28 remaining, as he redirected a pass from Anton Lundell into the Edmonton net for a 3-1 Florida lead with 7:34 left.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Skinner for an extra attacker with under seven minutes to go, and the move gave Edmonton essentially a two-man advantage when Florida defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson received a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck into the stands with less than five minutes remaining.

The Panthers killed off the infraction, however, then ended any hopes of an Edmonton comeback when Ekblad scored into the vacant net with 2:28 left to play.

Florida had the game's first prime scoring opportunity when Oilers forward Warren Foegele received a five-minute major penalty and an ejection for a knee-to-knee hit on the Panthers' Eetu Luostarinen midway through the first period.

The Panthers couldn't capitalise, however, and the sides were soon 4-on-4 when Ekman-Larsson was called for tripping during the extended power play.

Just 19 seconds after Ekman-Larsson was sent off, Ekholm's shot on a 2-on-1 rush evaded Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to put Edmonton up 1-0 with 8:43 remaining in the opening period.

Florida drew even midway through the second period when Mikkola fired a drop pass from Lundell past Skinner.

Bobrovsky finished with 18 saves, while Skinner stopped 25 of 28 shots.

Evander Kane and Connor McDavid scored 55 seconds apart in the third period and the Edmonton Oilers extended their franchise-record winning streak to 14 games with a 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Warren Foegele and Dylan Holloway also scored and Stuart Skinner made 27 saves as Edmonton became the seventh team in NHL history to win 14 in a row.

Edmonton improved to 22-3 in its last 25 games and is nearing the NHL record for longest winning streak of 17, set by Pittsburgh in 1992-93.

Skinner won his 11th straight game, passing Grant Fuhr for the longest single-season winning streak in franchise history.

Dmitri Voronkov had the lone goal for the Blue Jackets, who dropped to 1-4-1 in their last six games.

Kucherov powers Lightning

Nikita Kucherov had a hat trick and set up another goal as the surging Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3.

With his four points, Kucherov moved into the NHL lead with 80 points, three ahead of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.

Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel each had a goal and an assist to help Tampa Bay win for the sixth time in seven games.

Jamie Drysdale, Cam York and Cam Atkinson had goals for the Flyers, who dropped their third straight following a five-game winning streak.

Hill sharp in return as Knights win

Adin Hill turned away 40 shots in his return from injury and the Vegas Golden Knights held on for a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders.

Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy had a goal and an assist apiece for Vegas, which has point in five straight games (4-0-1).

Hill made his first start since Dec. 17 after missing 22 of the previous 23 games with a lower-body injury.

Brock Nelson notched his 500th career point with a first-period goal and Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a short-handed tally for the Islanders, who fell to 1-1 under new coach Patrick Roy.

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper became the third-fastest to 500 wins as Nick Perbix scored 2:02 into overtime in a 3-2 victory over the slumping Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

Scotty Bowman (825) and Bruce Boudreau (837) were the only coaches to reach the milestone faster than Cooper’s 839 games. Cooper is the fastest to do it with one franchise, and 29th overall to get to 500.

Tyler Motte and Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning, who have traded wins and losses in their past six games.

Perbix ended a 40-game drought with his OT goal and completed Tampa Bay’s comeback from a 2-0 deficit in the third period.

Phillip Danault and Matt Roy had goals as the Kings lost their sixth straight (0-3-3).

Tkachuk has hat trick to power streaking Panthers

Matthew Tkachuk scored three straight goals in the third period and Anthony Stolarz stopped 28 shots to propel the Florida Panthers to their eighth consecutive win, 5-1 over the St. Louis Blues.

Tkachuk extended Florida’s lead to 3-1 2:18 into the third period and scored again at 5:57 before completing his fifth career hat trick with an empty-net goal.

Sam Reinhart added his team-leading 29th goal for the Panthers, who have outscored opponents 36-15 during the eight-game streak.

Oilers edge Blackhawks for eighth straight win

Connor McDavid snapped a second-period tie and Stuart Skinner turned aside 25 shots as the Edmonton Oilers won their eighth in a row, 2-1 over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Leon Draisaitl had the other goal to give Edmonton its second eight-game winning streak under coach Kris Knoblauch. The Oilers are 16-3-0 in their last 19 games.

Jason Dickinson scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost six of seven overall and five straight to the Oilers.

Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists to reach 900 points for his career and the Edmonton Oilers won their sixth straight game, 5-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

McDavid’s milestone point came on an assist on Zach Hyman’s goal in the second period. The 900th point came in his 602nd game, making McDavid the fifth-fastest player in NHL history to reach that total, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Peter Stastny.

McDavid had five points in a game for the 10th time. He had a career-high six points on Nov. 14, 2019 against Colorado.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and an assist for the Oilers, who are 14-3-0 in their past 17 games.

Surging Jets handle Lightning

Nikolaj Ehlers and Morgan Barron scored third-period goals as the Winnipeg Jets extended their point streak to nine games with a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Neal Pionk and Alex Iafallo also scored and Vladimir Namestnikov had three assists as the Jets won their third straight and improved to 7-0-2 in their past nine games.

Connor Hellebuyck, named the NHL’s third star of the month of December, stopped 33 shots. He is 7-0-2 with a 1.99 goals-against average in his last nine starts.

Red-hot Hurricanes roll past Rangers

Andrei Svechnikov scored a pair of goals and Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 28 shots to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-1 rout of the New York Rangers.

Brady Skjei had three assists against his former team and Jack Drury had a goal and an assist to help the Hurricanes win their fourth straight and improve to 7-1-3 in their last 11 games.

Svechnikov has points in five consecutive games, including six goals, while Sebastian Aho has points in his last five games with three goals and 10 assists.

Chris Kreider scored for New York, which has lost seven times this season by three or more goals.

Zach Hyman scored two of his three goals in the Oilers’ four-goal first period and surging Edmonton cruised to a 6-1 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Connor McDavid and Mattias Janmark each had three assists and Ryan McLeod and Mattias Ekholm also scored to help the Oilers win their fifth straight game.

McLeod scored 28 seconds into the game and Ekholm extended the lead just 13 seconds later. Hyman netted his first of the game at 5:46 and Pyotr Kochetkov was replaced by Antti Raanta after allowing three goals on six shots.

Jordan Staal spoiled Stuart Skinner’s shutout bid midway through the third period as Carolina dropped its second in a row following a 3-0-1 stretch.

Skinner finished with 38 saves and has been in net for all five wins during the streak, posting a 1.58 goals-against average.

Kucherov extends streak in Lightning’s win

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 11 games and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1.

Anthony Cirelli and Tanner Jeannot also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves as Tampa Bay won its second in a row following a four-game skid.

Kucherov, the NHL scoring leader with 44 points, has six goals and 15 assists during his streak.

Jake Guentzel had the lone goal for Pittsburgh, which had a five-game point streak snapped (2-1-3).

Marchessault, Eichel lead Knights over Blues

Jonathan Marchessault scored the 200th goal of his career and JacK Eichel had a goal and an assist as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the St. Louis Blues, 6-3.

The Golden Knights had six different goal scorers with Eichel, Marchesault, Keegan Kolesar and Michael Amadio tallying in the second period, when Vegas turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead.

Vegas is 3-0-3 in its last six games and leads the NHL with 39 points.

Jordan Binnington made a season-high 43 saves for the Blues, who have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games.

This year’s NHL Awards very well could have been called the Connor McDavid Show.

The Edmonton Oilers’ captain was announced as the runaway winner of the 2022-23 Hart Memorial Trophy, the NHL’s most valuable player award, after receiving 195 of 196 first-place votes.

The Boston Bruins’ David Pastrnak received the other first-place vote and finished second. Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers was voted third.

McDavid also won the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the most outstanding player as voted by his peers, and had already secured the Maurice Richard Trophy with his league-leading 64 goals and the Art Ross Trophy for his NHL-best 153 points.

McDavid received his honours at the annual NHL Awards ceremony Monday in Nashville, Tenn.

At just 26 years old, McDavid enters rarefied air by winning his third career Hart Trophy after being voted MVP in 2016-17 and 2020-21.

Only Wayne Gretzky (nine), Gordie Howe (six) and Eddie Shore have won the Hart Trophy more than three times. The last player to win his third MVP was Alex Ovechkin in 2012-13.

McDavid’s 153 points last season were the most by a player since Mario Lemieux’s 161-point campaign in 1995-96.

Playing in all 82 games, McDavid paced Edmonton to a 50-win season and fourth straight playoff appearance with his staggering offensive numbers.

McDavid’s scoring last season included 21 power-play goals and 50 power-play assists, as well as four goals while shorthanded. The six-time All-Star was held without a point in just seven games and had 10 games in which he had four or more points.

Erik Karlsson of the San Jose Sharks won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenceman after becoming the sixth blue-liner NHL history to have over 100 points in a season.

Karlsson’s 25 goals and 76 assists last season earned him his third Norris Trophy, previously winning in 2011-12 and 2014-15 as a member of the Ottawa Senators.

After a record-setting, 65-win season, the Bruins were well-represented Monday. Linus Ullmark claimed the Vezina Trophy as the season’s top goaltender, beating out Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets and the New York Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin.

Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron was honoured as the top defensive forward in hockey with the Selke Trophy, winning for the second year in a row and a record sixth time in his career.

The Seattle Kraken’s Matty Beniers took home the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie. The second overall pick in the 2022 draft, Beniers led all rookies with 57 points (24 goals, 33 assists) while helping Seattle make its first playoff appearance.