The Florida Panthers scored three rapid-fire goals to take control then held off the Edmonton Oilers for a 4-3 victory Thursday that put them one win away from a first NHL Stanley Cup title.
In little more than six minutes in the second period the Panthers scored three goals to seize a 4-1 lead, only for the Oilers to score twice in the third period to bring it down to the wire.
Aleksander Barkov, questionable to play after a high hit from Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl in game two, scored one goal and set up another and Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 32 of 35 shots he faced in another sterling performance.
One year after falling to Vegas in the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers lead the series 3-0 and can claim the Cup on Saturday in Edmonton, where they’ll be going for the first Stanley Cup Final sweep since 1998.
The Oilers, trying to become the first Canadian team to capture the trophy since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, now must win four straight games to do it.
Four NHL teams have come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series — only one, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs against Detroit, did it in the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s exciting,” Florida’s Sam Bennett said of a potential closeout in game four. “But we’ve got a job to do. We’ve got to come prepared.”
It was tied at 1-1 when goals from Vladimir Tarasenko, Bennett and Barkov in just over six minutes catapulted the Panthers to a 4-1 lead.
Tarasenko capitalized on a mistake by Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who was left exposed trying to play the puck behind the net. Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen beat Codi Ceci to the puck and fed it to Tarasenko for the goal that put Florida up 2-1 at 9:12 of the second.
Bennett made it 3-1 off a turnover by Darnell Nurse and Barkov made it 4-1 at 15:31 of the second with a snap shot off a feed from Evan Rodrigues.
Barkov was instrumental in the Panthers’ opening goal, poking the puck off Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard’s stick, driving down the ice and slotting a pass to Gustav Forsling.
Forsling flicked the puck forward and Sam Reinhart deftly deflected it into the net.
Warren Foegele, ejected in the first period of game two for a knee-on-knee hit on Luostarinen, pulled Edmonton level at 1:49 of the second period, collecting a pass from Adam Henrique at center ice and sliding the puck under Bobrovsky’s glove.
Reeling by the end of the second, Edmonton came up empty on a power play to open the third and it looked like the Panthers would cruise home.
But Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod — both assisted by Connor McDavid — scored for the Oilers to cut the deficit to one.
“They’ve obviously got a lot of offensive skill and talent, so we knew they were gonna push,” Bennett said. “But we held it down.
“Our compete, our will to want to win this one, it was huge and it showed all four lines. Everyone in there, our goalie, all battling their butt off. It’s nice to see the effort, the will to win.”
