Florida has outscored the Oilers 11-4 through the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final
Florida has outscored the Oilers 11-4 through the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final
The Florida Panthers are one win away from the Stanley Cup.
Florida marched into an extremely hostile environment on Thursday night and took down the Edmonton Oilers by a 4-3 score in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers now lead the best-of-7 championship series 3-0.
Rogers Place was rocking at the start of Game 3 as both teams were able to generate some offense in the opening stages of the first period.
Edmonton killed off an early Panthers power play, and then Florida’s penalty kill went to work.
Back-to-back calls on Sasha Barkov and Brandon Montour gave the home team some good looks on the man advantage, but the Oilers power play struggles continued.
It wasn’t until late in the period, with the teams skating 4-on-4, that Florida opened the scoring.
A great hustle play by Barkov, chasing down the puck in the Oilers zone, led to Gus Forsling handing the puck at the blue line with time and space.
Forsling slid the puck to a cutting Sam Reinhart, and all he had to do was get his stick down to deflect the pass home, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead with 62 seconds left in the period.
Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had a huge opening 20 minutes. He finished with 13 saves, including three on high danger shots, while the Oilers expected goals was 1.93, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Edmonton tied the game early in the second on a goal by Warren Foegele that came directly off a failed odd-man rush by Florida.
Sam Bennett missed the net with a one-timer and four of Florida’s players within a few feet, leading directly to Foegele going in alone on Bobrovsky, beating him between the pad and the glove.
The Panthers took the lead back midway through the period off a misplay behind the net by Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.
Eetu Luostarinen dug out the puck and sent it in front to Vladimir Tarasenko for his first goal of the series.
About five minutes later, Sam Bennett forced a turnover deep in Edmonton’s zone, and Matthew Tkachuk got the puck right back to Bennett at the side of the crease, and suddenly it was 3-1 Florida.
They didn’t stop there.
Evan Rodrigues sent Barkov in on a breakaway less than 90 seconds later to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead.
Just over six minutes into the third period, Philip Broberg gave the Oilers fans some life. His shot was going wide but it hit Niko Mikkola who was checking alongside the net and deflected in.
Then Ryan McLeod deflected a shot by Brett Kulak with 5:17 to go, drawing the Oilers back within one goal of the Panthers.
The crowd was back into it and the Oilers kept the pressure on, but the Panthers defense would ultimately bend and not break.
On to Game 4, with a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Game 3 in Edmonton:
Reinhart scored for the first time since his overtime winner in Game 4 against the Rangers. He’s up to nine goals and 15 points during the playoffs.
Florida went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and is now a perfect 10-for-10 against the Oilers this series.
Barkov has logged two points in two of his three Stanley Cup Final outings. Through Florida’s 20 playoff games, he now has seven goals and 21 points.
After going pointless for seven games, Tarasenko has points in three of his past four outings.
Bennett has scored in four of his past six games. He’s up to seven goals and 13 points in 14 playoff games.
Evan Rodrigues picked up an assist, extending his points streak to four games. He’s got three goals and five points during the run.
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