Panthers look to rely on postseason experience in Game 5 of Cup Final

The Florida Panthers’ experience has helped them get to within one win of their first Stanley Cup championship.

They’ll rely on it again in their second attempt to get that victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Florida’s first try devolved into a mistake-filled 8-1 loss in Game 4 at Edmonton on Saturday. The Panthers still have a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, though, and first-hand knowledge from rebounding in similar situations.

Florida’s path to reaching the Cup Final in consecutive seasons included three previous losses in their first chance to close out a series, including twice when they could’ve completed a sweep. Each time, the Panthers won the next game to advance.

“I think in each one of those situations, including last night, you come to the rink to clinch, right?” coach Paul Maurice said before the Panthers flight home on Sunday. “That’s first and foremost. And then you get a little bit of a reality check and then you get back to hockey. So, that will be our goal here over the next two days.”

The reality check will include that the Panthers played their worst game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The eight goals were the most they’ve allowed this season -- regular season or playoffs. Sergei Bobrovsky gave up five of them on 16 shots before being replaced by backup Anthony Stolarz 4:59 into the second period.

Including the third period of its 4-3 win in Game 3 on Thursday, Florida has allowed 10 goals in the past four periods after giving up only two in the first eight periods of the series.

On the positive side, that game was far out of character for the usually defensively stingy Panthers. They had limited opponents to two goals or fewer in 12 of their 14 games before Saturday. And Florida is still in a commanding position in the series with a chance to win the Cup on home ice Tuesday.

Of the 28 previous teams that had a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final, 27 went on to win the Cup, with 20 completing the sweep. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who came back to defeat the Detroit Red Wings, were the only team to rally from such a deficit in the Cup Final.

The Panthers veteran leadership group, headed by captain Aleksander Barkov and alternates Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad and Sam Reinhart, has done a good job of regulating the locker room throughout the rollercoaster of emotions during the playoffs, though. So, they’ll try to find that balance again after the disappointment of Game 4.

“The emotions of the team in pro sports are going to go up and down. That's just a fact,” Maurice said. “And the further you get into the playoffs the more emotion is there and sometimes the swings are greater. So, you rely on those veterans not to ignore the emotions or pretend like they're not there, but just keep it in a fairly narrow band so we're not swinging too high or too low.”

Florida has been on a mission to win the Cup this season after losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the Cup Final last season. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.

The Panthers also lost Game 4 after winning the first three games against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round this season. Like before Game 4 against Edmonton, Florida had won six consecutive playoff games prior to it’s 2-1 Game 4 loss to Toronto last season.

The Panthers shrugged that off and won 3-2 in overtime in Game 5 to advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the first times since 1996. Florida won its first three games of this postseason before a 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 4.

Undeterred, the Panthers wrapped up that series with a resounding 6-1 win in Game 5.

Up 3-1 after four games against the Boston Bruins in the second round this season, Florida lost 2-1 in Game 5 at home before advancing with a 2-1 victory in Game 6.

The Panthers are 4-1 in games following a loss this postseason. They’ve never previously had to rebound from a loss when they had a chance to win the Stanley Cup, but Maurice could already sense a calm among the players postgame Saturday.

“It was very almost quiet in our room after the first three games, and it was quiet at the start last night after the game,” he said. “But by the time we got back to the meal room, we were back talking to each other and the breakfast this morning there was lots of chatter. Keep the emotional bandwidth narrow.”

Florida will try to clean a host of mistakes it made Saturday and put the Oilers’ offensive genie back in its bottle. After being limited to four goals in the first three games, Edmonton had seven players score in Game 4.

Seven of the Oilers’ eight goals were scored off rush plays. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ 5-on-3 goal that made it 6-1 at 13:03 of the second period -- Edmonton’s first power-play goal of the series (1-for-16) -- was the lone exception.

Connor McDavid had four points (one goal, three assists), including his first goal of the series. Dylan Holloway had his first three points (two goals, one assist) of the Final. Nugent-Hopkins got his first goal and point of the series. Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman each got his first points of the Final with two assists apiece.

Mattias Janmark (also one assist), Adam Henrique and Darnell Nurse each scored his first goal of the series as well.

So, the Panthers will review some video Monday of what Maurice called, “the obvious theme in that game last night,” and get to work on fixing it.

“They were strong, and they pushed the rush game, and we didn’t handle the 1-on-1 in some ways and we lost a bit of coverage on some,” Maurice said. “But they were good, they were fast, and we need to get ready to be better.”