Revisiting Every Oilers Comeback From a 3-2 Series Deficit

Thanks to a 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Tuesday (April 28), the Edmonton Oilers now trail 3-2 in their 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs best-of-seven first round series. Game 6 is set for Thursday (April 30) at Honda Center.

Edmonton’s Game 5 victory has Oil Country believing that the Oilers can win the series, a notion that didn’t seem very likely after Anaheim won three straight games to take a 3-1 stranglehold.

Historically, NHL teams that trail 3-2 in a best-of-seven series come back to win 20.5% of the time. However, in the 13 previous instances that they’ve trailed 3-2, the Oilers have rallied to win four times, for a rate of 30.7%.

In fact, the Oilers have pulled off a pair of 3-2 comebacks in the last four years, so there’s no shortage of examples to give Edmonton fans hope that their favourite team can yet advance to Round 2. Here’s a look at every time the Oilers have won a series after trailing 3-2.

1990 Smythe Division Semi-Final: Oilers vs. Jets

Edmonton trailed the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 in the opening round of the 1990 postseason before staving off elimination with a 4-3 victory at Northlands Coliseum in Game 5.

Back in Winnipeg for Game 6, the Oilers jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period, only to watch the Jets battle back to tie the game at 3-3 when Doug Evans scored midway through the third period. But with just under seven minutes remaining, future Hall-of-Famer Jari Kurri restored Edmonton’s lead, and the Oilers held on for a 4-3 win.

Edmonton completed its comeback with a 4-1 win in Game 7 at Northlands Coliseum. The Oilers led 2-1 going into the third period before getting insurance goals from Kurri and Esa Tikkanen in the final 15 minutes.

At that time, Edmonton’s triumph marked just the seventh instance in Stanley Cup Playoff history that a team had advanced after trailing 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. Buoyed by their three straight wins, the Oilers rode a wave of momentum all the way to the 1990 Stanley Cup Final, where they beat the Boston Bruins to capture the team’s fifth NHL championship.

1998 Western Conference Quarter-Finals: Avalanche vs. Oilers

In the opening round of the 1998 Playoffs, the Oilers once again trailed 3-1 before making one of the most remarkable rallies in NHL postseason history, outscoring the Colorado Avalanche 9-0 over the final two hours, 43 minutes, and 40 seconds of the series.

Edmonton’s rally started in Game 5 at McNichols Sports Arena, where the Oilers trailed 1-0 after 40 minutes, but scored three times in the third period, including two goals from Mike Grier, to stay alive.

Drake Berehowsky electrified Edmonton Coliseum early in Game 6 when he scored to put the home team ahead 1-0. From then on, Colorado threw everything at Curtis Joseph, but couldn’t solve Edmonton’s star netminder. Boris Mironov finally gave the Oilers some breathing room when he scored midway through the third period, securing a 2-0 win for Edmonton.

Unlike Game 6, the winner-take-all seventh game was never in doubt. Edmonton was up 2-0 after 20 minutes, took a 3-0 lead into the second intermission, and finished off the Avs with a shocking 4-0 victory. Edmonton’s luck ran out in the next round, however, as the Dallas Stars eliminated the Oilers in five games.

2022 Western Conference First Round: Oilers vs. Kings

Deadlocked 2-2 with the Los Angeles Kings in their 2022 first round series, the Oilers lost Game 5 at home by a score of 5-4 when Kings forward Adrian Kempe scored just 72 seconds into overtime.

Facing elimination in Game 6 at Crypto.com Arena, the Oilers responded by winning 4-2. Tyson Barrie broke a 2-2 tie at 14:50 of the third period. In one of the most famous moments in modern history, Evander Kane scored the clinching empty-net goal and celebrated by flashing seven fingers to let Kings fans know that the series was going back to Edmonton.

Game 7 was scoreless until Cody Ceci gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 13:15 of the second period. Connor McDavid put the series on ice by scoring with just under four minutes remaining in the third. Oilers netminder Mike Smith made 29 saves to record the second Game 7 shutout in franchise history as Edmonton won 2-0.

From there, the Oilers kept rolling, knocking off the Calgary Flames in five games to advance to the conference final for the first time since 2006. Edmonton’s drive to the championship ended in a sweep at the hands of the Avalanche.

2024 Western Conference Second Round: Canucks vs. Oilers

Over the first five games of Edmonton’s 2024 second round series against the Vancouver Canucks, the teams alternated wins. That left the Oilers facing elimination, down 3-2.

Like Edmonton’s current series against Anaheim, the Oilers swapped starting goalies multiple times: After Stuart Skinner struggled at times through the first three games, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch turned to Calvin Pickard. Pickard won Game 4, then lost Game 5, so Knoblauch went back to Skinner with Edmonton’s postseason on the line at home.

Skinner faced only 15 shots as Edmonton cruised to a 5-1 victory in Game 6 at Rogers Place to send the series back to Rogers Arena. In Game 7, the Oilers surged to a 3-0 lead, then held on to win 3-2 after the Canucks pushed with a pair of goals in the latter half of the third period.

This wasn’t the last time Edmonton exhibited remarkable resiliency in the 2024 postseason. In the Western Conference Final, the Oilers fell behind Dallas 2-1 before winning the series in six games. Then they mounted an epic comeback from down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers, forcing a seventh game before just coming up short.

More than half a dozen of the players who were part of that 2023-24 Oilers team should be in the lineup for Edmonton at Honda Center on Thursday, so they know what it takes to come back. Oilers fans hope that history will repeat itself.