The Edmonton Oilers are officially facing elimination, and were sent to the brink in the most heartbreaking way imaginable.
Corey Perry scored the game-winning goal in double overtime as the Anaheim Ducks won Game 5 by a 4-3 score. Anaheim now leads the series 3-2.
Perry and his teammates erased a 3-0 lead late in the third period, scoring three goals in three minutes and one second, all with goaltender John Gibson on the bench. Rickard Rakell's game-tying marker was scored with only 15 seconds left on the clock.
The Ducks outshot the Oilers 20-9 in overtime, and 64-38 overall. Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot played one of the best games of his life, but it wasn't enough.
Peter Chiarelli's Edmonton Oilers were three minutes and change away from a pivotal Game 5 win on the road over the Anaheim Ducks.
Then it all fell apart.
Instead of being a win away from the Western Conference final, the Oilers were looking at overtime after blowing a 3-0 lead, with all three Anaheim goals coming with its net empty.
Rickard Rakell's game-tying goal just about ended the poor Oilers general manager.
Three goals in three minutes. All with the net empty.
The Edmonton Oilers were up 3-0 with play winding down in the third period of Game 5 against Anaheim. Then the Ducks decided they wanted to play some extra time.
Ryan Getzlaf, Cam Fowler, and Rickard Rakell scored in a span of three minutes - with Rakell's tying marker coming with 15 seconds to play - to send Game 5 to overtime.
Rakell's goal was reviewed to determine if Cam Talbot was interfered with, but the call on the ice stood.
The Edmonton Oilers star swatted the puck out of mid-air to give his club a 2-0 lead on the Anaheim Ducks early in the second period of Game 5 on Friday night.
It came on a two-man advantage for Edmonton, and it was McDavid's fifth goal of these playoffs.
Schwartz scored 25 seconds into the third on a rebound off a Colton Parayko shot, giving St. Louis a 2-1 lead. Schwartz has a team-high four postseason goals.
Jake Allen made 21 saves for the Blues, who had dropped two in a row.
Jaskin put the Blues in front at 5:43 of the second period, banging home a rebound off an Alex Pietrangelo shot. It was Jaskin's second career playoff goal.
Jaskin was inserted into the lineup in place of Alexander Steen, who was sidelined with a lower-body injury. He had just one goal in 51 games this season.
Neal tied it with Nashville enjoying a two-man advantage with 6:10 left in the second. The power play was set up when Pietrangelo and Patrik Berglund both took minors with 7:19 left.
The Blues managed just one shot on goal, a 45-footer by Pietrangelo, during more than four straight minutes of power-play time between the first and second periods, including 1:50 of a 5-on-3 opportunity.
Mike Fisher had three blocks for the Predators - all on Vladimir Tarasenko - during the Blues' two-man advantage. St. Louis is a league-worse 2 for 28 on the power play in the postseason.
NOTES: The Blues and Predators announced a joint effort to donate to flood relief efforts in the Midwest. The Blues will be donating all of the proceeds during Game 5 from their 50/50 raffle, memorabilia sales and Blues for Kids silent auction to the American Red Cross disaster relief efforts. The Predators announced that all of the proceeds raised from the ''Smash Car'' at Bridgestone Arena, as well as the Nashville Predators Foundation's Game 5 online auction, would be donated to the relief efforts in St. Louis.
It's not the first time a team has made a backup their go-to goaltender. In fact, several teams currently have a No. 1 who used to hold down secondary duties with another club. Here are five former backups who are embracing starting roles on new teams:
With the Senators, Lehner played second fiddle to Craig Anderson, but he's held down the top job since coming to Buffalo, appearing in 59 games this season and posting a .920 save percentage. Only four netminders who saw as many contests owned a better save rate.
Cam Talbot
Talbot's career started on Broadway before he took his show to Northern Alberta following a trade to the Edmonton Oilers in 2015. He played two seasons with the New York Rangers, where an injury to starter Henrik Lundqvist put the spotlight on him for 36 games in 2014-15.
He appeared in 73 games with the Oilers this season, posting a league-high 42 wins. That performance helped push Edmonton into the playoff picture for the first time since 2006.
Thomas Greiss
After backup stints in San Jose, Arizona, and Pittsburgh, Greiss has taken hold of the starter's job in Brooklyn.
Drafted by the Sharks in 2004, he spent his developmental years with the Bay Area club under the tutelage of Evgeni Nabokov. Now in New York, he's taken hold of the No. 1 role ahead of Jaroslav Halak, appearing in 51 games with the New York Islanders this season and posting a 26-18-5 record.
Martin Jones
Jones showed starter potential with the Los Angeles Kings, recording seven shutouts in 34 games, but his time in the crease was infrequent behind starter and former Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick.
The Kings gave Jones his own opportunity in 2015, dealing him to the Boston Bruins before he was quickly flipped to the Sharks. In San Jose, he has played 65 games in each of his two seasons, leading the Sharks to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2016.
Mike Smith
Drafted by the Dallas Stars, Smith played behind go-to netminder Marty Turco, to whom he credits his strong puck-handling skills. After his short time in Texas, he moved on to Tampa Bay, this time as the backup to veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson.
Four years later, the Arizona Coyotes rolled the dice on Smith after walking away from Ilya Bryzgalov. He delivered the franchise's first playoff series win in 25 years and led the club to the Western Conference Final - all in his first season in the desert.
That makes for a crowded crease, meaning a trade of one of the Hurricanes' extra goaltenders is likely around the corner. Netminding needs will be a common concern this offseason, and three teams rise above the rest as the most viable candidates to make a deal with Carolina for Ward:
Edmonton Oilers
Ward could stay in Carolina, where he's spent the first 12 years of his career, but he'd now play second fiddle to the new starter in Darling.
Or he could accept a trade - Ward carries a 15-team no-trade list - to head to Alberta and play for the Oilers. It would mark a Western Canada homecoming of sorts for Ward, a Saskatoon native who spent his junior years with the WHL's Red Deer Rebels.
While Ward would still be the second option in Edmonton, the Oilers showed this season that they need a reliable backup behind starter Cam Talbot. He appeared in all but nine games this season, primarily due to Edmonton's limited depth in the crease.
Ward could offer the Oilers insurance on the short term, as he's signed for just one more season. That cap space will be needed after 2017-18, when captain Connor McDavid becomes due for a new contract.
Winnipeg Jets
The Jets have a promising young netminder in Connor Hellebuyck, the goaltender of the future in Winnipeg. But he showed this season he's not yet ready to handle prime-time duties.
That left Winnipeg to experiment with veteran 'keeper Ondrej Pavelec, who started the season in the minors. That wasn't the case with Ward, who still put up decent numbers with the Hurricanes, holding down a .905 save percentage on a team that did not qualify for the postseason.
Aside from Hellebuyck, the Jets also have Michael Hutchinson and Eric Comrie working their way up the ranks, and Ward could serve as a vital stop-gap while the franchise's young goalies continue developing their games.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Golden Knights wouldn't need to trade for Ward. They could simply add him for free. That is, if the Hurricanes opt to expose him in the summer expansion draft.
Vegas will build its initial roster from a blank canvas, with two spots to fill between the pipes. Thirty netminders will be made available to the Golden Knights, so the question will be whether general manager George McPhee believes Ward is one of the two best goaltenders to be free for the picking.
Ward won the Stanley Cup and playoff MVP honors in his rookie season with the Hurricanes in 2005. He'd bring a winning pedigree to the NHL's newest franchise.
Only a year away from free agency, the possibility remains Ward could put together a solid campaign in Vegas, backstopping plenty of pucks on a piecemeal team. That would make him an attractive rental option at next year's trade deadline, with the first-year Golden Knights likely set for the seller's seat.
Mike Futa may or may not be in the mix for the Buffalo Sabres' vacant general manager position, but if he isn't, he still has a decent consolation prize.
The longtime Los Angeles Kings executive no longer appears to be under heavy consideration for the Sabres job, Fox Sports West's Jon Rosen reported after talking to Futa twice and to another team source Thursday.
Futa was promoted to assistant general manager of the Kings last month when former GM Dean Lombardi was fired.
He told Rosen multiple times that he's "excited" about his new role with the Kings, speaking passionately about the feeling in the organization after the elevation of Luc Robitaille to team president and Rob Blake to GM.
Futa said he was "thrilled" to interview with the Sabres, adding that the experience was "gratifying."
He's spent 10 years with the Kings in various roles, the last three of which as the club's vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel.
Bryan Bickell is happy to be starting the next phase of his life.
The former Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks forward, who retired after the regular season due to multiple sclerosis, is settling in to life after hockey.
"I'm feeling a lot better now that I'm not playing hockey. Slowing the heart rate down, slowing the body down, and slowing the mind down definitely helps me feel a lot better. From the get-go to a month afterward and then working my way back, I got better," Bickell told Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago. "I feel comfortable now. I can do a lot of things that, that month, I couldn't really do."
Bickell was diagnosed with MS in November, but was intent on making a return, which started in the AHL and eventually led him back to the Hurricanes' lineup for four games to close out the regular season.
