EDMONTON, Alberta — Brad Marchand secured a win for the defending champion Florida Panthers by scoring on a breakaway in double overtime. The Panthers managed a 5-4 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Final rematch, thus leveling the series on Friday night.
Marchand netted his second goal of the game 8:04 into the second overtime, helping Florida to clinch the game after Corey Perry equalized with just 17.8 seconds left in the third period with goaltender Stuart Skinner off the ice for an additional attacker. Notably, both matches in this final have extended into overtime, a scenario not seen since 2014 and only the sixth occurrence in NHL history.
As was the case last year and throughout this playoff journey, Sergei Bobrovsky came through in critical moments with impressive saves, blocking 42 of the 46 shots directed at him. His performance was complemented by his teammates delivering the essential goals needed for victory.
How to watch the Stanley Cup Final
- The Florida Panthers won Game 2 in double OT, 5-4, over the Oilers to tie the best-of-7 series 1-1 Friday night in Edmonton.
- The teams will head to Sunrise, Florida, for Game 3, which starts at 8 p.m. ET on Monday.
- A possible Game 7 would be June 20 in Edmonton. Eight of the 24 finals this century have gone the distance.
- All games will be carried in the United States on TNT and truTV and streamed on Max.
- A Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup Final since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.
- Edmonton is a -125/+105 series favorite over Florida in Las Vegas.
Along with Marchand, Sam Bennett scored his postseason-leading 13th goal and NHL record 12th on the road. Seth Jones scored into a wide-open net after some spectacular tic-tac-toe passing, and fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tied it with a shot through traffic that Stuart Skinner almost certainly did not see.
Kulikov’s goal came after Florida controlled play for several minutes in the second, hemming Edmonton in its zone shift after shift and piling up a 34-13 advantage in shot attempts during the period. Marchand’s OT goal was his 10th career goal in the final to lead all active players.
Game 3 is Monday night as the teams traverse the continent and play shifts to Sunrise.
The Panthers wrested home-ice advantage away from the Oilers by splitting the first two, rebounding from a Game 1 overtime loss and asserting they won’t go quietly against Draisaitl and Connor McDavid looking like they’ll do everything in their power to hoist the Cup for the first time.
Of course, those stars had their moments. They assisted on Evan Bouchard’s goal when coach Kris Knoblauch put them on the ice together, and McDavid stickhandled through multiple defenders in highlight-reel fashion to set up Draisaitl scoring on the power play.
There were a lot of those — 10 in total — after officials whistled 14 penalties, including three in the first four minutes. Each team had a few calls it was not happy with, though most of that evened out over the course of the game.
