SUNRISE — For three games of this Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers had the best player on the ice.

He was the stone wall guarding their net and turning back nearly every attempt by the Edmonton Oilers to sneak the puck past him.

But things have changed for the Panthers with their faithful wondering, "Where has that Bob gone?" As in goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Meanwhile, those north of the border are shouting, "Welcome to the series, Connor." As in Connor McDavid.

For the second consecutive game, the best hockey player in the world played like it. McDavid's second consecutive four-point night explains how the Oilers have gone from having the same chance of winning this series as a pile of ice shavings has surviving five minutes on the Amerant Bank Arena parking lot asphalt in June to, at worst, this series now being a 50-50 proposition.

Edmonton's 5-3 Game 5 win Tuesday has turned a series once destined to conclude with the Panthers winning their first Stanley Cup to the Oilers with all the momentum and likely feeling invincible, despite trailing 3-2.

Edmonton appears to be leading Stanley Cup Final

It's almost as if Edmonton returns to its hockey hotbed for Friday's Game 6 leading the series down 2-3.

"Now that we've kind of made this a series, I think they'll enjoy it a lot more," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of the passionate Oilers fans, in the understatement of the postseason.

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That joy for Panthers fans left the building early when Connor Brown's shorthanded goal 5:30 into the game gave the Oilers a lead they never would relinquish. North Palm Beach's Jack Nicklaus did his part to get the crowd hyped by banging the drum before the puck dropped. The Golden Bear was wearing a No. 18 Panthers sweater, signifying his number of major championships.

The biggest reason the Oilers now legitimately are in reach of their sixth Stanley Cup is the best player in the series now is wearing navy blue, orange and white; and not a panther stitched to the front his sweater.

McDavid scored twice and assisted on two goals Tuesday. He helped the Oilers jumped to a 3-0 lead and hold off the Panthers, who cut the deficit to one before McDavid's empty netter with 19 seconds to play assured both teams would be making the 2,549-mile journey back to the Alberta capital for Game 6.

Most believe both teams will be returning to South Florida for a decisive Game 7 Monday. And with the way Edmonton's explosive offense suddenly has found its mojo — with a lot of help from a suddenly pedestrian Bobrovsky — who can argue?

When McDavid made it 3-0 five minutes into the second period with a goal that officially told us Bobrovsky's issues from Game 4 — he was pulled early in the second period of Edmonton's 8-1 laugher after allowing five goals on 16 shots — had carried over the Game 5. At that point, the Oilers had scored 13 of the last 14 goals in the series.

This is an offense that once it gets rolling may not stop until McDavid is skating around the Panthers arena while hoisting the Stanley Cup.

"He's been driving the bus since he got here," Edmonton's Zach Hyman said about McDavid. "He's the guy leading the team. You kind of expect that from him."

Hyman finished that quote by added he didn't want to put added pressure on the 27-year-old.

McDavid's first goal came from below the face-off circle to Bobrovsky's right, one so uncharacteristic of Bobrovsky that Panthers coach Paul Maurice was caught by cameras hanging his head for several seconds in the aftermath. The shot found space between Bobrovsky and the post.

"Coming down that side of the goal, I've gone short side lots, people know that I look there," McDavid said. "He was standing so I tried to put it there and found a way in."

Suddenly, those "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby" chants heard so frequently during Games 1 and 2 and again during introductions before Game 5, were silenced.

McDavid's prettiest play was assist on Corey Perry's goal

McDavid's prettiest play of the night was his assist on Corey Perry's goal midway through the second period that made it 4-1 Edmonton.

McDavid went end-to-end, around one Panther at the offensive blue line and then somehow splitting two more Panthers before flicking the puck to Perry in the slot.

"I'm in that position a lot … on the breakout," McDavid said. "Just tried to work my way through there."

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McDavid now has three goals and five assists in the last two games. The Oilers team had two goals in the first two games and three in Game 3 while falling behind 0-3.

Now, the momentum has flipped and Edmonton is looking to become the fifth team to come back from losing the first three games of a seven-game series in the NHL playoffs, and just the second in the Stanley Cup Final, joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It's been a fun ride," McDavid said. "We're glad it's going one more (game). But that's all we've earned here, one more (game.)."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Oilers have shot at Stanley Cup history after trailing 0-3 to Panthers