RALEIGH, N.C. — When Carolina made a mistake in overtime, the Edmonton Oilers couldn't have picked a better guy to wind up with the puck.

Fernando Pisani picked off an errant pass at the blue line, skated in all alone and fired a shot over Cam Ward's glove, the puck ripping the back of the Hurricanes' net.

Pack up the Stanley Cup. The finals are going back to Alberta.

Pisani scored his fourth game-winner of the playoffs — but never one bigger than this. The first short-handed overtime goal in finals history gave the Oilers a 4-3 victory Wednesday night and denied the Hurricanes a chance to celebrate an NHL title on home ice.

"He's such a great breakaway player," teammate Michael Peca said. "He has got a lot of variety when he comes in there, and he's a scored a lot of big goals for us in these playoffs.

"If there's one guy you want going in on that one, it's him."

Now, it's on to Game 6, which is Saturday night in Edmonton.

The Hurricanes still lead the series, 3-2, but the Oilers refused to buckle when facing elimination for the first time in these playoffs — even after Steve Staios was sent to the penalty box for dragging down Mark Recchi at 3:03 of overtime.

Just 28 seconds later, Pisani struck for his second goal of the game and the first short-handed overtime goal in finals history.

Carolina's Cory Stillman, a star of the playoffs, flubbed a cross-ice pass for Eric Staal as the Hurricanes set up a rush. Pisani picked off the puck, took off on a breakaway and beat the 22-year-old Ward to the top right corner.

"It happened so quick," said Pisani, who scored two goals on the night and leads the teams with 12 in the playoffs. "I kind of took a quick look and saw that he was over the blocker's side and just shot it in the top half of the net."