Golden Knights, Panthers each feel good about path to Stanley Cup win

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The Vegas Golden Knights feel they're still in control.

"Go win Game 4 and it's 3-1," defenseman Brayden McNabb said. "That's a pretty big lead."

The Florida Panthers feel they have a chance after winning Game 3 in overtime 3-2.

"We're scratching and clawing shift by shift," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "We're not looking for control."

It's three games into the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, the Panthers are coming off an emotional win, their first ever in this round, and both teams are in good moods, feeling that they're building to something better, bigger.

Game 4 is at FLA Live Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS). One of these teams is going to feel significantly different when it's over.

"I think we felt as a group more connected and more toward the style that we want [in Game 3]," Panthers forward Eric Staal said. "Ended up with the right result. We'll continue to look at things to get better and improve on and be excited for a great opportunity here at home again in this great big building [Saturday]."

The process for the Golden Knights to keep their good vibes going won't change. When they meet as a team Saturday morning to go over video of Game 3, they likely won't be looking to correct or adjust much at all from what they've been doing in the series.

"We certainly feel the first three games there's been way more good than bad," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I don't think it'll be a tough sell. The guys know what's at stake. It'll be predominantly what we've been doing, 90 percent of how we want to play."

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The 10 percent they will look at includes their execution in the first period. Cassidy said he didn't love it in Game 3, but they got away with it, and it was 1-1 after 20 minutes.

He thought they played well for most of the rest of the game except for allowing Matthew Tkachuk to get free in front of the net in a 6-on-5 situation. The puck found his stick for the tying goal with 2:13 remaining in the third period.

Overtime was a shot and a goal for the Panthers, nothing more. Cassidy said he didn't even think it was a dangerous scoring chance for Carter Verhaeghe.

"It's a shot that found its way in," Cassidy said. "It's a shot that we give up a lot. We're not going to overanalyze."

They're not going to worry either, especially after allowing only 23 shots on goal, and going 2-for-6 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

"Our mindset shouldn't change," Vegas forward Jack Eichel said. "Every game is the most important game of the season. Just go out there and win the next one. That's the plan."

The Panthers feel better about their chance to execute their plan because they feel they've found a path back to what has been working for them throughout the playoffs.

They still took eight minor penalties in Game 3, six that put the Golden Knights on the power play, but in a way they were more disciplined. The Panthers weren't taking themselves out of position to make a hit. Maurice said they were guilty of that in Games 1 and 2.

They didn't give Vegas too much space to create chances off the rush.

Sergei Bobrovsky was brilliant, with 25 saves after being pulled in Game 2, when he gave up four goals on 13 shots in 27:10.

Overtime was again friendly to them. The Panthers have won all seven of their games that have extended beyond regulation in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"The adjustments that we make are usually special teams adjustments, so we have some work to do there," Maurice said, "but 5-on-5, I thought we had a little bit of a return to form."

They need better from their special teams units.

Florida's power play was not good in Game 1, when it was 0-for-3 with three shots on goal. It was better in Game 2, but still went 0-for-4 albeit with 12 shots on goal. It didn't do much for them in Game 3, going 0-for-5 with four shots on goal.

"It's also our history in the playoffs that our power play that has taken two or three games to make the adjustments we need to make," Maurice said.

True.

Florida was 0-for-7 in the first three games against the Boston Bruins in the first round, and 5-for-13 (38.5 percent) in the last four. It was 0-for-1 in each of Games 1 and 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round, and 3-for-7 (42.9 percent) in Games 3-5. The Panthers were 0-for-3 in Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final; 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) in Games 2-4.

It is now 0-for-12 in the Cup Final.

"We're seeing extreme difference in styles from Carolina to Vegas, it's opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of pressure and opportunities," Maurice said. "I don't want to use the word address [the power play] like it's all messed up and we got to fix this problem. It's an area of growth for us. That's the way we've looked at all the things we need to get better at."

The penalty kill came up big in overtime before Verhaeghe scored and maybe the Panthers found something with it. But the Golden Knights have been on the power play 17 times in three games, a trend the Panthers can't allow to continue.

"The bottom line is you need to win, it doesn't matter how you do it," Staal said. "We were able to accomplish that. A huge test and response for us [Saturday] again."