Florida Panthers Stick to Gameplan in Rollercoaster of Stanley Cup Final Rematch

After a three-game stretch where their offense was non-existent, the Florida Panthers made a three-goal comeback doing what they do best: Defending and Forechecking.

Things looked pretty dire for the Florida Panthers midway through the second period of Monday night’s game in Edmonton.

Florida saw a first-intermission lead vanish as Edmonton dominated the early going of the second. The Panthers were held without a shot on goal for a 10-minute stretch, the Oilers scored three-consecutive goals to take a two-goal lead and it seemed as if a third-straight regulation loss was on the horizon.

Captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed his second-straight game with an illness, was not there to help them with any kind of comeback push either.

Only the Panthers came out and played their game in the third period and took home a 6-5 win in a wild Stanley Cup Final rematch.

“I thought we did a good job of sticking with it,” Sam Reinhart said. “It was a little back-and-forth. They had their breaks, we had our breaks as well. We didn’t open it up and we stuck to our gameplan.”

Florida was able to do a lot of what they struggled to do in their past two games in Vancouver and Calgary. They applied much more pressure in the offensive zone, they chipped pucks in and got to the forecheck, and they got bodies to the net.

“I’m really proud that they were able to stay with it and dig in,” coach Paul Maurice said. “In a game like that, Sasha Barkov is a really big missing piece. Every team has to play without their best players, I get that. But there are certain games that are tough without Barkov and I’m really happy with it. We had a couple of other sick guys play big minutes and they played great. I’m really happy with it.”

And they did not stray away from that as they wore down the Oilers for the win.

“It starts in the first period,” Jesper Boqvist said. “Get on the forecheck so they don’t have anything left and I think we did a pretty good job of that today.”

Boqvist got that party started 2:42 into the game, stripping Evan Bouchard of the puck and scoring on a breakaway to end a goal drought that lasted 143:43.

From there, the game tightened up and the scoring chances and shots were dead even. Zach Hyman got his break off the rush with 4:47 to go in the second period, wiring home a wide-open wrist shot. But Matthew Tkachuk got that goal back with 27 seconds to go in the second period by deflecting in a Carter Verhaeghe shot on the power play with his foot.

Then the Oilers opened it up, and they had their way with the Panthers.

Hyman got things started with a breakaway goal 6:20 into the second period. Connor Brown wired home a one-timer off the rush 43 seconds later to put the Oilers ahead. Then Leon Draisaitl blasted a one-timer that trickled past Sergei Bobrovsky’s blocker 9:24 into the second to make it a two-goal game.

During all of that, the Panthers were held without a shot since the 18-second mark of the period (eventually getting their first shot of the period at 10:18) and they looked gassed for the most part.

But they found it in them to get back to their game and make the push.

Gustav Forsling got Florida its break with 2:05 to go in the second period, firing a wrist shot that bounced off the crossbar, off defenseman Ty Emberson’s back and in to draw them back within a goal.

Then they came out and played their game in the third period.

The Panthers executed their dump-and-chase game to a tee, with Eetu Luostarinen fetching the puck out of a scrum before Anton Lundell set up a streaking Niko Mikkola in the slot to tie the game 6:53 into the third. Reinhart gave Florida the lead 30 seconds later, forcing a turnover and scoring off of a wide-angle shot off the rush for his 20th goal of the year.

Edmonton tied the game up less than a minute later, but the Panthers were not done fighting. Carter Verhaeghe wired a snap shot from the slot past Stuart Skinner to give them the lead with 6:55 to go, and they did not look back.

“I think we just kept out gaps tight and limited the time and space for them,” Reinhart said. “Our defensive game is our best offensive game. That’s where our chances come, so we stuck with it. We didn’t open it up and we clawed back into it.”