Panthers defeat Oilers in Game 3, are one win away from the Stanley Cup

Panthers defeat Oilers 4-3, are one win away from the Stanley Cup

EDMONTON — The stakes were as high as they’ve ever been for the Edmonton Oilers going into Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Down 2-0, with the series shifted to Edmonton, the Oilers needed this one. 

The Florida Panthers wouldn’t let that happen.

Sam Reinhart scored the first goal of the game with 1:02 remaining in the first to put the Panthers up 1-0. 

Warren Foegle would tie it up less than two minutes into the second.

Edmonton got the home crowd on their feet with the equalizer, but it wasn’t enough to deter the Panthers. 

Florida scored three unanswered goals in the second — going up 4-1 — taking the juice out of the crowd and the Oilers.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov all scored in the final 11 minutes of the second as the Panthers took a three-goal lead to the final intermission. 

On the brink of a 3-0 hole, the Oilers rallied together in the third, putting an impressive last ditch effort to give themselves a chance. 

Phillip Broberg and Ryan McLeod both scored to cut the Panthers lead to one — setting up a final push for the Oilers. 

The once quiet Rogers Place was bouncing and an Oilers comeback was very well in the cards. 

McLeod, who scored the Oilers third goal, was inches away from being the hero at Rogers Place. 

From the mouth of the goal, he fired a shot with all the daylight in the world around him. A scrambling Sergei Bobrovsky had to kick out his leg while falling down to try and make the hail mary save — he did. 

“He’s had a lot of big saves. Especially in the finals,” Barkov said of Bobrovsky. “They’re going to get their chances and Bob has been dialed in. When you see how much work he puts in every single day… you’re just happy to see him perform like that. That was a huge save for us but he also had a lot of huge saves throughout the whole game. ”

Bobrovsky stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced in what was his — and the team’s — 15th win of the playoffs. 

16 gets you the Cup. 

Florida now holds a 3-0 series lead and will have a chance to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history on Saturday night in Edmonton.

Every hockey player’s dream is to lift the Cup over their head. With the goal so close, emotions can take over the task at hand. The Panther players all sounded locked in following the Game 3 win. 

“The job’s not finished,” Sam Bennett said after the win. “We’re not really thinking about that (being one win away). Our mindset right now is recovering and getting prepared for the next game.”

That next game that they are preparing for is a big one and it’s on Saturday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton. 

“You have to have a plan and that plan can’t come in yesterday,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said when asked about the potential Cup clinching game. “You’re very careful about walking into the room as a coach with something they haven’t heard before at this time of the year.”

In NHL history, only  one team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit in the Stanley Cup Final (1942 Toronto Maple Leafs).