Oilers send message in dominant Game 4 win over Panthers.

Tales of the demise of the Edmonton Oilers were premature, at least for one more game, as the Oilers came out on fire in Game 4 and never relented at any point during a 60 minute thrashing of the Florida Panthers.

It all went downhill early for the Panthers who found themselves on their heels despite an early powerplay courtesy of a knee on knee from Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.

In spite of the early power play for the Panthers it would be the Oilers that would strike first courtesy of a brilliant play from Oilers forward Connor Brown. Brown would outwait Bobrovsky, seemingly waiting an eternity, before sneaking the puck around him to feed Mattias Janmark to open the scoring with a shorthanded goal.

The Oilers would cruise to a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes and the onslaught would continue early in the second period with Oilers captain Connor McDavid waiting just a little over a minute to make it 4-1 Oilers.

That would quickly be followed by a goal from defenseman Darnell Nurse, giving the Oilers a 5-1 lead in the second period and chasing Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky from the net in the process.

His sister was loving every second of it.

In spite of the goaltending change things would not improve for the Panthers with the Oilers quickly scoring on Alex Lyon who came in to relieve Bobrovsky.

Although the second intermission would provide the Panthers with a brief respite, the Oilers would continue to pour it on in the third period.

The Panthers would try valiantly to respond but Stuart Skinner would shut the door time after time, including robbing Matthew Tkachuk who was looking at a wide open cage.

The Oilers will force a Game 5 in Florida.