SUNRISE, Fla. — Things got heated between Edmonton and Florida on Monday night, but the Panthers offense showed no signs of cooling down, as they beat the Oilers 4-1 in the Stanley Cup Final and took a 2-0 lead in the series.
Niko Mikkola and Aaron Ekblad both had early goals and Evan Rodrigues put the game away with a pair of third-period goals for the Panthers.Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 18 shots.
Prior to the series, Bobrovsky was 1-8 all-time in Cup final games — and now he's two wins away from capturing the first championship for both the Panthers and himself.
Tensions were high all game. Edmonton’s Warren Foegele was giving a game misconduct and ejected during the first period for a knee-on-knee hit that temporarily knocked Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen from the game. The Oilers also lost defensemen Darnell Nurse to an injury as well, leaving them with just 11 forwards and 5 defensemen for most of the game.
Things took a nasty turn midway through the third period when Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl launched himself at Florida's Aleksander Barkov, hitting him in the head. Barkov remained down on the ice for some time and needed assistance to the bench. He left the game and went to the Florida locker room for further evaluation.
Draisaitl was only assessed a minor penalty for roughing on the play.
Florida coach Paul Maurice gave no updates on Barkov's condition afterwards, who is normally more vocal with the media after wins.
“This isn’t The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Maurice said of the Barkov hit. “My feelings don’t matter.”
The Oilers held a 1-0 lead after the first period after Mattias Ekholm zipped a shot past Bobrovsky from the top of the left circle. The shot appeared harmless-looking shot, but the puck managed to get between Bobrovsky's leg pads and find its way into the back of the net.
Rodrigues set the tone for Florida in the third, with a goal off a turnover to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead and then later added a tip-in on the power play to double their lead.
It was the first power-play allowed by Edmonton's penalty kill in its last 34 times being down a man.
Connor McDavid missed a chance to get the Oilers within one on a breakaway with about 6 minutes left. But Bobrovsky denied McDavid, and then he and Matthew Tkachuk got into a tussle along the boards after the play — as the Panthers were still heated over the hit on Barkov.
Ekblad sealed it with an empty-netter with 2:28 left.
Stuart Skinner stopped 25 shots in the losing effort for the Oilers, who now have to buck some serious history.
Edmonton not only has to combat Bobrovsky, but also history. The Oilers have successfully rallied from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series once in franchise history — when they beat San Jose in Round 2 of the 2006 playoffs. On top of that, teams that fell into a 2-0 hole in the Stanley Cup Final, have only come back to win it five times in 54 previous situations.
“I think we feel that we came here and played well enough that we should have a split," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It doesn’t always happen.”
The series resumes with Game 3 in Edmonton on Thursday night.
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