EDMONTON, Alberta – Following their leaders that got them this far in the playoffs and a winning recipe that has worked all season, the Florida Panthers are on the verge of hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Captain Aleksander Barkov scored one goal and scored another, Sergei Bobrovsky made some of the biggest saves of his 32 to thwart a comeback attempt and the Panthers held on to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in Game 3 of the Cup final on the night of Thursday.
They can win the first title in franchise history as early as Game 4 on Saturday night in Edmonton.
“We know it will be the toughest game, for sure,” Barkov said. “We don’t take anything for granted. Each day is one day at a time. Whether it’s a period, a shift, we do it one at a time. That’s how we’ve been all year.”
Florida took another step toward the top of the hockey mountain, capitalizing on a handful of Edmonton turnovers and preventing Connor McDavid from scoring a goal. A late rally brought the Oilers within a point, but fell short as the Panthers leaned on Bobrovsky, who made a remarkable stop on Ryan McLeod in the final minutes to preserve the victory.
“They’re a very skilled offensive team,” Bobrovsky said. “They’re going to make plays. You just focus on each one and it’s a fun challenge. It’s a fun challenge to play against them because they bring out the best. ”
Long before that, Barkov forced one of Evan Bouchard’s offers seconds before Sam Reinhart’s goal, goalie Stuart Skinner coughed up the puck to Vladimir Tarasenko and Darnell Nurse fed it to Sam Bennett.
“We let them build on that momentum and move forward,” Skinner said. “Just silly mistakes. This doesn’t need to happen.”
Barkov had one of the signature moments when he got past the defense and beat Skinner on the breakaway, temporarily calming the excited crowd for the first Stanley Cup Final game with fans in Edmonton since 2006. That trip also ended in defeat.
To avoid that fate, the Oilers will need to complete a comeback from 3-0 down, done only four times in NHL playoff history – and once in the final in 1942 – to end their Canada Cup drought.
The last year a Canadian-based team won was in Montreal in 1993, months before the Panthers’ inaugural season. Until this series, they had gone 1-8 in the final.
Behind Barkov and Bobrovsky, Florida completely flipped that script. The two leading contenders for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP were arguably the two best players on the ice in Game 3, including Barkov recovering from a high shot by Leon Draisaitl that knocked him out of Game 2 on Monday night.
“From the beginning, our competition, our desire and desire to win this was huge,” Bennett said. “Everyone, even our goalkeeper, was fighting hard. It was good to see the effort. Either you have it or you don’t. We have 23 dogs on our team that have this desire. You either have it or you don’t.”
Another big reason why the Panthers got here, winger Matthew Tkachuk, also had a big assist and was responsible for increasing the pressure on Edmonton.
The Oilers wilted, losing a game in which they were largely the better team but were unable to overcome ill-timed mistakes. Skinner allowed four goals on 23 shots and Warren Foegele, Philip Broberg and McLeod scored, while McDavid for the first time in the entire playoffs looked frustrated and out of sorts.
“We’re trying to understand them,” said McDavid, who had five shots on net. “We haven’t beaten them in three games.
Bogging down elite opponents, defending them to the point of questioning their ability to score, is a big part of the Panthers’ style and a big reason why they are on the league’s biggest stage and putting the cold ones on the ice for a potential championship celebration. 2,500 miles from home.
In holding on for a win over Edmonton on Thursday night, they also showed no ill effects from waiting to fly from South Florida to Alberta, a decision this was questioned when their plane was delayed by storms and arrived a few hours into Wednesday night – less than 24 hours before the album’s release. Instead of appearing jet-lagged, the Panthers were prepared to take advantage of opportunities to score and score when it mattered most.
“We continue to follow the momentum,” Bobrovsky said. “We don’t think too far ahead of ourselves. We’re just going along with the moment and enjoying the moment.”
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