Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 55: Panthers stave off late comeback attempt from Oilers to take 3-0 lead in Cup Final

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov
Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-USA TODAY Sports

The Florida Panthers have had a strong performance through two games to take their 2-0 series lead, but now the Edmonton Oilers have home ice advantage for the next two games and a chance to respond. If they can’t for Game 3, they face the nearly impossible task of coming back from down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final. Will we finally see the Oilers electric offense take over a game in this series, or will the Panthers tighten their grip on the series?

While nothing of note happened through most of the first period, it still wasn’t without it’s chances. Edmonton had a 12-7 edge in scoring chances, and a 6-4 edge in high-danger chances, so already it was close to being the most action-packed game in the series in terms of the play.

But despite the play favouring the Oilers, it was the Panthers that opened the scoring. Aleksander Barkov entered the boards and did an excellent job of working the boards against Evan Bouchard to set up Gustav Forsling, and then Forsling went for the tip pass with Sam Reinhart to get the goal and make it 1-0 Panthers.

But the Oilers responded in short order in the second period. Just 1:49 into the middle frame, Adam Henrique set up Warren Foegele for a breakaway, and Foegele sniped it past Sergei Bobrovsky for the game-tying goal. It was also only the second goal of the playoffs for the struggling forward, who’s been up and down the lineup as of late.

However, the Panthers took over for the rest of the period. Just before the halfway point of the second, Stuart Skinner misplayed the puck behind the net, giving Vladimir Tarasenko an easy goal to give Florida the lead again.

Almost five minutes later, the Panthers struck again, as Darnell Nurse made a lazy play that turned the puck over to Matthew Tkachuk, who then made a nice pass to Sam Bennett in front for the easy tap-in to make it 3-1.

And then 1:34 after Bennett’s goal, Barkov and Evan Rodrigues got a slight 2-on-1 chance, and a well-place shot from the Panthers’ captain made it 4-1 going into the third period.

The third period was one of the weirdest periods of hockey I’ve seen, at least in terms of the momentum. The Panthers were grinding away at the Oilers, hemming them to the other side of the red line, but not necessarily generating chances themselves, just putting the game into a state of nothingness.

But, six minutes into the third, Philip Broberg threw the puck on net and it bounced off the back of Niko Mikkola to beat Bobrovsky and make it 4-2.

And then with a bit over five minutes left, Brett Kulak threw the puck on net and Ryan McLeod made the deflection to make it a one-goal game again.

But that was all they could muster for the comeback. They generated a couple more chances, but went out with a whimper as the Panthers won the game 4-3 and took a commanding 3-0 lead in the series. Reinhart and Barkov both had a goal and an assist for Florida, while Connor McDavid was the lone Oiler with multiple points with two assists.

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