The standard rule of NHL playoff hockey is that if the score gets out of hand, the feistiness gets out of hand.
The Edmonton Oilers were highly undisciplined as they fell 6-1 to the Florida Panthers in Game 3. Then the third period predictably turned into a series of scrums and misconducts.
It started at 10:29 with the Oilers trailing 5-1. Edmonton’s Trent Frederic tried to punch Florida’s Sam Bennett and missed. He then cross-checked Bennett several times, breaking his stick on his final effort. That led all of the skaters on the ice to square off. The scrum turned into a prolonged fight between Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse and Florida forward Jonah Gadjovich.
Five players were thrown out of the game. Frederic received 14 minutes in the scrum, Bennett 12 minutes, Nurse 17 minutes and Gadjovich 15 minutes. Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm also received a 10-minute misconduct.
“I don’t think we would have acted or played like that had it been a one-goal or two-goal game,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Boys being boys, I guess trying to make investments for the next game.”
The Oilers’ misconducts continued with Evander Kane leaving the game after slashing Carter Verhaeghe, and Kasperi Kapanen was ejected for cross-checking Eetu Luostarinen.
All told, there were 122 penalty minutes handed out in the third period, 75 of them to the Oilers.
“The game obviously got out of hand at the end there,” Kane told reporters after the game. “That stuff’s going to happen. You look at some of the calls and whatnot, some of them are frustrating. They seem to get away with it more than we do.”
The Panthers received 11 power plays in the game and scored three power-play goals after entering the game with a 3.6% success rate in home playoff games.
“We talk about being composed,” Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk told TNT. “You’ve got to take a punch in the face, you’ve got to take a slash in the face, a cross-check, a slash in the leg. Whatever the case is, you’ve got to do it. There’s a bigger picture with the win for us.”
Probably not. There could be fines. Expect at least one fine as Oilers defenseman Jake Walman was caught on camera spraying his water bottle toward the Panthers bench.
The Oilers coach answered carefully when asked about the officiating during the game, noting the Edmonton penalty for too many men on the ice.
“It was too many men. They caught us there,” he said. “I just wished they had called it (against the Panthers) in Game 2 in overtime.”
Even though Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner, he said he doesn’t have to make a decision on who to play in Game 4. “Stu, I don’t think had much chance on many of those goals,” he said. … Before Bennett was ejected, he had a massive shift where he delivered two big hits and then scored on a 2-on-0 breakaway. … The Game 3 win gave Panthers coach Paul Maurice 1,000 combined regular-season and playoff victories.
