What Edmonton Oilers players said after advancing to Western Conference Final
The Edmonton Oilers have slayed their playoff demons and are off to the Western Conference Final for the second consecutive season.
It was anything but easy as the team played the Vegas Golden Knights to a 0-0 game headed into overtime. It was a defensive masterclass by both clubs, and both goaltenders stood tall when called upon.
As it usually goes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, an unlikely hero emerged in OT with Kasperi Kapanen banging in an ugly goal to win the game and series for the Oilers in five games. This avenged a second-round loss at the hands of Vegas back in the 2023 playoffs.
“[Podkolzin] made a great play on the blueline, and Leon [Draisaitl] gave it to [Nurse] and just kind of threw it on net,” Kapanen said of the OT winner. “I think I missed it a couple times and just tried to stay with it, and lucky it went in.
“I think that pretty much summed up the whole game today. There wasn’t too many grade A chances, just happy it went in.”
THERE IT IS!!! 😱
KASPERI KAPANEN IS YOUR @ENERGIZER OT HERO IN GAME 5 AND THIS SERIES IS OVER! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/Ao34byyu3m
— NHL (@NHL) May 15, 2025
Kapanen got the series winner, but Stuart Skinner slowly slid into the background as another unlikely player to make a major mark in this series. At the start, it looked like the Edmonton native had lost his job to Calvin Pickard. He ended it with two straight shutout victories and hasn’t allowed a goal against in over 120 minutes of play.
The Oilers have been stellar defensively, but Skinner has come up big when called upon.
“He’s gotta be feeling good,” Darnell Nurse said following the win. “It’s not much better than quieting all the people when they’re talking crap about you.
“For him, he showed up, and we don’t win this series if he doesn’t step up and play the way that he does. It’s a goaltender that, in a lot of ways, took us to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, and he showed up again huge again in this series.”
Kasperi Kapanen & Darnell Nurse address the media after they scored & assisted on the #Oilers overtime winner to eliminate Vegas in Game 5. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/2gMDwOcW8S
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 15, 2025
Returning to the Western Conference Final is another fantastic accomplishment for this Oilers team, but it is far from the final goal of winning a Stanley Cup. Connor McDavid also spoke to the media after the win, but was more serious than you would expect a captain to be after a series-clinching victory.
It’s clear that the team will not be satisfied until the Stanley Cup returns to the Alberta capital.
“I know we got a good team,” McDavid said. “We’ve beaten two really, really good teams in L.A. and Vegas, and we’ve done it largely grinding through special teams… Five-on-five, we’ve been really, really good.
“We keep putting ourselves in good positions and keep giving ourselves a chance. We keep knocking at the door.”
"There's probably a lot of people that thought it was gonna go longer than five & probably not a lot of people that thought we would win. It's nice to keep on rolling & proving people wrong."
Connor McDavid on the #Oilers belief in their room. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/inMX51ymNE
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 15, 2025
Edmonton will now await the winner of the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets second-round series. It would seem a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Final is loading as the Stars currently have a demanding 3-1 series lead over Winnipeg.
Game 5 of that series is set to go on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. MDT.