Panthers hold off Oilers in Game 3, on verge of 1st Stanley Cup championship
Bobrovsky makes 32 saves to help Florida survive Edmonton's late rally
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"The job's not finished. We're not really thinking about that," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "We've got a lot of work to do."
They've done a lot of good work to get to this point, being up 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, with the latest triumph a 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday.
Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist, Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves, and the Panthers stopped Edmonton's third-period rally in time to take the 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Panthers, who are the back-to-back Eastern Conference champions. They lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 last season.
They can win the Stanley Cup on Saturday, when they play Game 4 here.
There hasn't been a sweep in the Stanley Cup Final since 1998.
"You go through all your routines and everything throughout the year and you find out what works for you so that when you get in a moment like this, you know, you just do what you've done before," Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. "And that's what we'll do and play the same way we played all year. That's kind of where our focus is."
Connor McDavid had two assists to give him three in the series, and Warren Foegele, Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod scored for the Oilers. Broberg and McLeod scored 8:41 apart in the third period to cut Florida's lead from 4-1 to 4-3. Stuart Skinner made 19 saves.
But Leon Draisaitl was held off the scoresheet for the third straight game and Edmonton went 0-for-3 on the power play to fall to 0-for-10 in the series.
In addition to Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman do not have a point in the series. Evan Bouchard has one point, an assist.
"It is disappointing being down 3-0 and we've got to let that reality sink in," Skinner said. "I'm not too sure what the stats are coming back from it, but if anyone can do it it's the Oil."
This is the 29th time in best-of-7 Cup Final history that a team leads 3-0; 27 of the previously 28 times the team with the lead has won the Stanley Cup. The only it didn't was in 1942, when Toronto Maple Leafs rebounded to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.
The Panthers have had a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 series four times previously, going on to win them all.
Edmonton has been down 3-0 in a best-of-7 series five times previously; it is 0-5.
"There's frustration that we're down, but there's a difference between frustration and quitting," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "There's absolutely no quit. There's belief that we can do this."
The Panthers built their lead with three goals in a 6:19 span in the second period.
Tarasenko made it 2-1 at 9:12 with a one-timer from between the hash marks off a pass from Eetu Luostarinen out of the left corner after Skinner failed to handle the puck behind the net.
"I tried to obviously play the puck," Skinner said. "I don't know if it bounced over me. I'm not too sure exactly what happened. They got the puck, passed it out front. I tried to get that one as well and tried to make the saves. All of those three things did not work."
The Panthers picked up steam from there.
Bennett scored off a turnover by Darnell Nurse at 13:57 to give Florida a 3-1 lead.
Barkov extended the lead to 4-1 at 15:31, scoring off a 2-on-1 with Rodrigues. The play started with the Panthers winning a puck battle along the boards in the defensive zone and Reinhart then finding Barkov with a stretch pass out of the zone to create the odd-man rush.
"Just a couple too many mistakes that seemingly just all ended up in the back of our net," Draisaitl said.
Said Bennett of the second period, "It was big for us. Obviously, goals are tough to come by, especially in the Cup finals, so it was a big period for us. I think it just started with our defense, and that's how we were able to generate that offense."
Broberg cut the Panthers lead to 4-2 at 6:02 of the third period with a shot from the right face-off circle that was targeted to go high and wide but instead found its way in off Niko Mikkola's elbow.
McLeod made it 4-3 at 14:43 with a netfront deflection of Brett Kulak's shot.
He had another chance right in front off a pass from McDavid at 15:46, but the shot was on the ice and Bobrovsky made the save with his left pad.
"The best chance that Edmonton had didn't go in and that's Sergei Bobrovsky," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
Reinhart gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 18:58 of the first period with a redirection of Gustav Forsling's pass.
Foegele tied it 1-1 with a breakaway goal on a low glove shot at 1:49 of the second period, but Florida found momentum from there and scored three in a row, just enough to put at minimum 60 minutes between them and the Stanley Cup.
"Well, it's there for us but you don't think about it," Barkov said. "You can't think about it. All you have to do is take one moment at a time. Right now, we have to enjoy this win. We battled really hard today and we had a good win and we'll just enjoy this. Tomorrow, we need to recover and get ready for the game. That’s about it. We never think too much ahead."
NOTES: The Panthers are 1-3 in Game 4 when they have a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 series. … The last time a team led 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final was the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021 against the Montreal Canadiens. The Lightning needed five games to win the Stanley Cup. … The Panthers are 7-2 on the road in the playoffs.
