Reinhart, Rodrigues, and Montour all score as Florida takes a 1-0 lead
The Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers opened on Saturday with the visiting Oilers dominating territorially, but Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky making an early bid for the Conn Smythe Trophy with a 32-save effort in a 3-0 win to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Once again, the six former Buffalo Sabres players were central figures in the contest. Sam Reinhart assisted on Carter Verhaeghe’s first-period goal, and Brandon Montour had a helper on Evan Rodrigues second-period tally to give Florida a 2-0 cushion.
Reinhart led all Panthers forwards with nearly 23 minutes of ice time, while Montour played close to 19 minutes, with Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad leading with more than 25 minutes. On the opposite side, former Sabre Evander Kane was noticeable because of his bad defensive error on the Rodrigues goal that allowed the Panthers center a clear chance right in front of Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov played 14:19 and had three hits, and Kyle Okposo played just 7:55 on Florida’s fourth line with Steven Lorentz and Kevin Stenlund.
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