*Photo from Yahoo Sports*
Vegas leads series 2-1
We've got ourselves a series now. Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, Carter Verhaeghe won the game, and the Florida Panthers rallied to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights with a 3-2 overtime victory on Thursday night in Sunrise.
Both Tkachuk and Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who were trailing late in regulation until they flipped the switch, forcing overtime and then winning in overtime. This also goes down as the first win in the Stanley Cup Final in Panthers team history.
Tkachuk said after the game that "All that was on our mind was get the win. It didn't matter how we were going to be able to do it. It didn't matter leading up what was going to happen. We just knew what the result had to be and we got it."
It was the Panthers who took an early lead to start. Brandon Montour gave them a 1-0 lead with his 7th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Tkachuk and Eric Staal. With Vegas on the power play at the 16:03 mark of the first, tying the game 1-1 on his 8th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore.
Marchessault scored the only goal of the second period, giving Vegas a 2-1 lead with a power play goal, his 13th of the playoffs. With 2:13 left in regulation, Tkachuk scored for the Panthers, tying the score 2-2 and forcing overtime. Verhaeghe then won the game 4:27 into overtime, assisted by Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett.
Verhaeghe said of the win after the game that "We're the cats. We have whatever lives we have, but it’s awesome. It shows how great our team is and the guys on our team have no quit in them."
Getting the start in goal for the Panthers was Sergei Bobrovsky, who rebounded with a strong showing when it was most needed. Bobrovsky stopped 25 of the 27 shots he saw from the Golden Knights, which was good for a .926 save percentage.
It was Adin Hill back in net for the Golden Knights, putting together a strong game but still getting slapped with the loss. Hill turned aside 20 out of the 23 shots on goal that the Panthers sent at him, posting a .870 save percentage.
Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said that "I thought we were doing a lot of things correct. We just couldn't get the next one to put the nail in the coffin, so to speak. Normally that’s a shot that we’re going to give up, get the save and move on. It wasn’t like an odd-man rush through the middle so I didn’t mind the way we defended it. I mean, they've got good players. They're going to make some plays."
Up next, game 4 of the series is on Saturday night back in Sunrise. The Panthers will look to win to tie the series and force a game 6, while Vegas needs a rebound win to move one win away from the title.
Comments
Post a Comment