Wins it at 8:05 with 2nd of game after Perry ties it for Edmonton with 18 seconds left in 3rd
Panthers at Oilers | Recap | SCF, Game 2
EDMONTON — Soon after pedaling on the exercise bike to keep loose between overtimes, Brad Marchand found himself wrapped in the middle of a giant celebratory group hug on the ice, the hero of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final being mobbed by his teammates.
Marchand scored 8:05 into the second overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Friday, evening the best-of-7 series.
The Oilers won Game 1 in overtime 4-3.
“They’re very intense games,” Marchand said. “The energy in this building is pretty incredible. You can see the way they feed off of it. Just the intensity of the games, it’s exciting to be a part of. It’s a good one to win. I liked the way we played tonight.”
FLA@EDM, SCF Gm2: Marchand sends Panthers to victory in 2OT
Corey Perry scored the latest game-tying goal in Cup Final history at 19:42 of the third period to force overtime for the Oilers, but after an up-and-down first extra 20-minute session, Marchand delivered in the second overtime with his second goal of the game.
Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm missed the net on a shot from the left point, and the puck came all the way out the far side, taking a hop toward the middle. Marchand read it perfectly, skated ahead of Ekholm, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, and got sprung on a breakaway by Anton Lundell.
He went to his backhand, somehow kept the puck despite Draisaitl’s backcheck and shoved it through Stuart Skinner‘s five-hole for his fifth career overtime goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and second this postseason.
“I think our whole bench stood up when he had a breakaway there,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. “It’s just a huge play at a huge time. He’s been incredible for us this whole playoffs, scoring massive goals at massive times. That one was definitely the biggest.”
FLA@EDM, SCF Gm2: Perry puts home the tying goal with 18 seconds left
Bennett set an NHL record for a single postseason with his 12th road goal. Marchand scored his second short-handed goal in the Cup Final exactly 14 years after his first, which came June 6, 2011, in Game 3 against the Vancouver Canucks. Lundell had an assist on each of Marchand’s goals.
Seth Jones had a goal and an assist, Nate Schmidt had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 42 saves for Florida.
Bouchard had a goal and two assists, Connor McDavid had three assists, and Draisaitl had a goal and an assist for Edmonton. Skinner made 37 saves for the Oilers, who rallied from down a goal in the third but also couldn’t hold leads of 2-1 and 3-2.
Game 3 of the best-of-7 series will be at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“Obviously when you win the first one you’re disappointed when you don’t follow up and win the second one, but we’re going there with a split and that’s fine with us,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We know we’re comfortable playing on the road. We’ve won a lot of games so far in the regular season and playoffs. So, we’ll get ready for Game 3.”
Bennett gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead on the power play at 2:07 of the first period with his NHL-leading 13th goal in the playoffs. He set a Panthers playoff record by scoring in his fifth straight road game.
Evander Kane evened it 1-1 at 7:39 with a shot from the left face-off circle into the far side of the net.
Bouchard scored a 4-on-4 goal off his own rebound 100 seconds later to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 9:19, but Jones tied it 2-2 at 11:37, burying a shot from the left circle off a cross-slot pass from Eetu Luostarinen.
The Oilers went on the power play at 12:13 when Bennett was called for goaltender interference on Skinner, who stayed down and was examined by a trainer but stayed in the game.
McDavid had the highlight of the period on that man-advantage. He danced with the puck on his stick past Aleksander Barkov and then cut inside Aaron Ekblad in the slot to set up Draisaitl for a slam-dunk one-timer from the right circle that gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead at 12:37.
“There’s one player in the world that can make that [play],” Draisaitl said of McDavid.
FLA@EDM, SCF Gm2: Draisaitl and McDavid team up for stellar PPG
Florida killed an Oilers 5-on-3 for 33 seconds later in the period to keep it 3-2, and Bobrovsky came across the crease to stop Bouchard on a 2-on-1 at 1:53 of the second period.
That mattered, because the Panthers started to sustain pressure in the offensive zone and Dmitry Kulikov tied it 3-3 at 8:23 with a shot from the point that went through traffic and Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk in front.
Marchand gave the Panthers a 4-3 lead at 12:09 on a short-handed breakaway. Lundell chipped the puck up the ice, and Marchand got behind Bouchard and McDavid to go in alone on Skinner, beating the goalie through the five-hole.
“It’s just instincts at that time,” Marchand said of his breakaways.
Perry tied it 4-4 by scoring on a rebound from the left hash marks with 18 seconds left.
“I saw the puck laying there and I threw it in the net,” Perry said.
The previous latest game-tying goal in Cup Final history was scored by Tod Sloan of the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 against the Montreal Canadiens in 1951 (19:28 of the third).
“Bad break, what are you going to do?” Tkachuk said. “Just a tough bounce there, and we’re coming in here, and you know, it was the opposite of what you guys probably thought we were like in the locker room. We were upbeat, joking around, having some fun.”
Tkachuk said they were even picking who would score in overtime.
“I’m sure a lot of guys probably had ‘Marchy,’ ” Tkachuk said.
It took 28:05 for it to happen, not to mention 15 minutes on the exercise bike in between overtimes to keep his legs loose, but Marchand delivered to send the Panthers home happy.
“He’s a gamer. He’s a competitor,” Jones said of Marchand. “He brings so much energy to our team on and off the ice and you saw that tonight.”
NOTES: Bennett topped his four-game road goal streak from earlier this postseason. He broke the record of 12 road goals in a playoff year, set by Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets in 2018. … It was the 23rd double-overtime game in Stanley Cup Final history. … The Oilers lost in overtime for the first time this postseason (4-1) and for the first time in their Cup Final history (4-1). … This is the sixth Cup Final to require overtime in Games 1 and 2. … McDavid played a game-high 35:07.
FLA vs. EDM
FLA vs. CAR | EDM vs. DAL
FLA vs. TOR | CAR vs. WSH | DAL vs. WPG | EDM vs. VGK
OTT vs. TOR | FLA vs. TBL | MTL vs. WSH | NJD vs. CAR
STL vs. WPG | COL vs. DAL | MIN vs. VGK | EDM vs. LAK

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