*Photo from the Jefferson City News Tribune*
Florida leads series 3-0
This one's almost over. Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, Sam Reinhart had an identical line, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers with a 4-3 victory Thursday night in Edmonton.
The Panthers rode a 3 goal surge in the second period to a win, taking a 3-0 series lead to push the Oilers to the brink of elimination, putting the Panthers one win away from their first Stanley Cup in the process. It's the Panthers' 6th straight win, dating back to the conference finals.
Barkov said of being one win away from a title that "Well, it's there for us but you don't think about it. You can't think about it. All you have to do is take one moment at a time. Right now, we have to enjoy this win. We battled really hard today and we had a good win and we'll just enjoy this. Tomorrow, we need to recover and get ready for the game. That’s about it. We never think too much ahead."
Reinhart scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead with Barkov and Gustav Forsling assisting. Warren Foegele scored 1:49 into the second for the Oilers to tie the game before goals from Vladimir Tarasenko and Sam Bennett put the Panthers in the lead 3-1 during the second period.
Later in the second, Barkov scored to cap the 3 goal rally and put the Panthers ahead 4-1 with Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues assisting. Philip Broberg scored 6:02 into the 3rd for the Oilers to cut the deficit to 4-2. Ryan McLeod scored at the 14:43 mark of the 3rd, trimming the deficit to 4-3 with Connor McDavid and Brett Kulak getting assists.
Bennett said of the Panthers 3 goal period that "It was big for us. Obviously, goals are tough to come by, especially in the Cup finals, so it was a big period for us. I think it just started with our defense, and that's how we were able to generate that offense."
Getting the start between the pipes for the Panthers and continuing his remarkable run was Sergei Bobrovsky, who had another solid outing. Bobrovsky made 32 saves on 35 shots from the Oilers, giving him a .914 save percentage.
It was Stuart Skinner who started again for the Oilers, getting tagged with another loss as the Oilers fell to the brink of elimination. Skinner stopped 19 of the 23 shots on goal that the Panthers sent his way, good for a .826 save percentage.
Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the position the team is in that "There's frustration that we're down, but there's a difference between frustration and quitting. There's absolutely no quit. There's belief that we can do this."
Game 4 is set for Saturday night in Edmonton. The Panthers will look to sweep the Oilers and capture their first Stanley Cup title, while the Oilers need to win to force the series back to Florida and keep their hopes alive.
Comments
Post a Comment