The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers opened the scoring in the first period with a Sam Reinhart goal. This was his ninth goal of the playoffs (and 66th of 2023-24, including the regular season), which places him one back of Carter Verhaeghe for the team lead and two back of the franchise record set by Matthew Tkachuk last year (11 in 2023).
Warren Foegele evened the game with a goal in the second period; It marked his first goal since Game 1 of the 2024 First Round; a span of 18 games.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored his fourth career Stanley Cup Final goal to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead, which is the most of any player on the Panthers and the second-most among all skaters in the series behind Corey Perry (7).
Sam Bennett extended the Panthers lead to 3-1 in the second period. Bennett scored on a pass from Matthew Tkachuk to net the Panthers’ third goal in their first playoff game together in Alberta since skating with the Calgary Flames in Game 2 of the 2020 First Round against the Dallas Stars (also played at Rogers Place during the “bubble”).
After an Aleksandar Barkov goal made the score 4-1, Philip Broberg scored to bring the Oilers to a two-goal deficit in the third period. Barkov recorded his eighth multi-point game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and established a Panthers mark for most in a single postseason.
Ryan McLeod brought the Oilers to within one with a goal with just over five minutes left in the third period, but the Oilers could not get the next goal to even the game.
News and Notes
On Thursday, Barkov played for the Panthers against the Oilers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. Barkov’s status had been uncertain after he took a high hit from Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl in the third period of a 4-1 win in Game 2 on Tuesday. The hit caused the Panthers’ top forward and captain to miss the final 9:28 of the game.
Draisaitl received a minor penalty for roughing on the hit on Barkov.
“First of all, I think we all know I’m not a player who plays with an intent to injure anybody by any means,” Draisaitl said Thursday. “I have no track record of that. I’m not a player who enjoys that part of the game, injuring other players or anything like that.”
Barkov won the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL for the second time this season and has been a key part of shutting down Oilers superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Draisaitl through two games.
