By Basil Stroh
NHL Public Relations
* The Oilers brought the home crowd to their feet early and often for Game 3 of the Western Conference Final as Ryan Nugent–Hopkins collected another multi-point outing to begin the series and captain Connor McDavid overtook the postseason lead in points thanks to a multi-goal performance.
* The 2025 Conference Finals are averaging 6.5 goals per game and have done so thanks to back-to-back six-goal showings by the Panthers and Oilers, respectively, as well as five of six games played to date featuring a team score at least five goals.
* The reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers are one win away from joining elite company in NHL history with three consecutive berths into the Final, but the Hurricanes have other plans and have their sights set on erasing a 3-0 series deficit to keep their Cup aspirations alive.
OILERS OFFENSE AND SKINNER’S SAVES VAULT OILERS TO 2-1 SERIES LEAD
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (0-3—3) continued his productive series early by factoring on two Oilers goals in a 36-second span in the first period, then Edmonton would go on to add four more tallies throughout the contest thanks to contributions from Connor McDavid (2-0—2) and another stout performance from Stuart Skinner (33 saves). The Oilers, who listened to the Rogers Place crowd get as loud as 114 decibels throughout the contest, own an all-time series record of 21-3 (.875) when leading a best-of-seven series 2-1, including a 3-0 (1.000) record in the Conference Finals/Semifinals.
* Nugent-Hopkins has recorded at least two points in each of the first three games of the 2025 Western Conference Final. He joined Wayne Gretzky (5 GP in 1988 CF, 4 GP in 1983 CF & 3 GP in 1984 CF) as the second player in franchise history with a run of that length to begin a Conference Finals/Semifinal series.
* McDavid, who took the outright scoring lead in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs (5-17—22 in 14 GP), notched his 44th career multi-point postseason game and broke a tie with Brad Marchand (43) for the fourth most among active players behind Sidney Crosby (67), Evgeni Malkin (53) and Nikita Kucherov (48).
* Skinner came off a Game 2 shutout and had allowed zero goals through his first three wins of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite conceding one tonight, he became the fifth goaltender in the NHL’s modern era (since 1944) to allow one goal or fewer through his first four wins of a playoff year, joining Ilya Bryzgalov (1 GA in 2006), Ed Belfour (1 GA in 2004), Patrick Lalime (1 GA in 2002) and Felix Potvin (1 GA in 1994).
OFFENSIVE OUTBURSTS CONTINUE IN CONFERENCE FINALS
The 2025 Conference Finals featured an offensive outburst for the second time in as many games as the Oilers scored six goals a day after the Panthers skated to a 3-0 series lead against the Hurricanes with a six-goal showing of their own. Overall, five of the six games played in the 2025 Conference Finals have featured one team find the back of the net at least five times.
Did You Know? The 2025 Conference Finals are averaging 6.5 goals per game. It currently sits tied with 2022 for the second-highest average in that round in the past 30 years. Only the 2014 Conference Finals (6.6 G/GP) had a higher rate during that span.
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* U.S. wins 2025 IIHF championship, brings Johnny Gaudreau‘s jersey to collect trophy
COURTESY NHL PUBLIC RELATIONS
