EDMONTON, Alberta — Brad Marchand scored on a breakaway in double time beyond regulation and the defending champion Florida Panthers punched again in opposition to the Edmonton Oilers in Recreation 2 of their Stanley Cup Remaining rematch, profitable 5-4 on Friday night time to even the collection.
Marchand’s second objective of the night time 8:04 into the second OT allowed Florida to flee with a break up after Corey Perry scored to tie it with 17.8 seconds left within the third interval and Stuart Skinner pulled for an additional attacker. Every of the primary two video games this closing has gone to time beyond regulation for the primary time since 2014 and simply the sixth in NHL historical past.
Very like final yr and the playoff run thus far, Sergei Bobrovsky was dialed in when he was wanted essentially the most, making some unreal saves whereas stopping 42 of the 46 pictures he confronted. His teammates offered the required objective assist.
Together with Marchand, Sam Bennett scored his postseason-leading thirteenth objective and NHL document twelfth on the street. Seth Jones scored right into a wide-open internet after some spectacular tic-tac-toe passing, and fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tied it with a shot by means of site visitors that Stuart Skinner virtually actually didn’t see.
Kulikov’s objective got here after Florida managed play for a number of minutes within the second, hemming Edmonton in its zone shift after shift and piling up a 34-13 benefit in shot makes an attempt through the interval. Marchand’s OT objective was his tenth profession objective within the closing to steer all lively gamers.
Recreation 3 is Monday night time because the groups traverse the continent and play shifts to Dawn.
The Panthers wrested home-ice benefit away from the Oilers by splitting the primary two, rebounding from a Recreation 1 time beyond regulation loss and asserting they will not go quietly in opposition to Draisaitl and Connor McDavid wanting like they will do every thing of their energy to hoist the Cup for the primary time.
After all, these stars had their moments. They assisted on Evan Bouchard’s objective when coach Kris Knoblauch put them on the ice collectively, and McDavid stickhandled by means of a number of defenders in highlight-reel trend to arrange Draisaitl scoring on the facility play.
There have been a variety of these — 10 in whole — after officers whistled 14 penalties, together with three within the first 4 minutes. Every crew had a number of calls it was not proud of, although most of that evened out over the course of the sport.
