Marchand scores in 2OT after Oilers tie it in final minute of 3rd period
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EDMONTON — The Florida Panthers should have been gutted.
They were just 18 seconds away from a 4-3 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, just 18 precious seconds from tying the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final 1-1 heading back home to Sunrise, Florida for Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Then Oilers forward Corey Perry stomped on that dream, scoring the tying goal at 19:42 of the third period to send the game to overtime deadlocked at 4-4.
How did the Panthers respond to that aching heartbreak as they gathered inside their dressing room to regroup before the start of extra time?
“It was the opposite of what you guys probably thought was going on in the locker room,” Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “We were upbeat, joking around, picking guys who we thought were going to score.
“We were having some fun.”
Of course they were.
Because that’s what these Panthers do.
It’s who these Panthers are.
Their penchant for laughing at adversity is one of the signature trademarks of this Paul Maurice-coached team, a trait that helped them win the Stanley Cup a year ago.
And on this night, when most teams would have been devastated at blowing such a late lead on a big stage, they shook it off and reloaded as they almost always seem to do.
FLA@EDM, SCF Gm2: Marchand sends Panthers to victory in 2OT
Sure enough, that resiliency paid off when forward Brad Marchand scored at 8:05 of the second overtime period to give the Panthers a 5-4 victory in a game they’d thought they’d won more than an hour earlier.
“A lot of guys picked ‘Marchy,’” Tkachuk said.
For his part, Maurice chuckled upon hearing how upbeat his players had been in the wake of Perry’s goal.
“Nobody’s crushed about it,” Maurice said. “Nobody’s trying to kill who missed the puck on the last goal. They’re not trying to blame anybody.”
They never do.
“They’ve just done it before,” he said. “We’ve been in some tough spots and found a win.”
Nothing seems to rattle these Panthers.
Why would it?
They’ve played 64 Stanley Cup Playoff games since April 2023. They’ve suffered the low of losing the Stanley Cup Final to the Vegas Golden Knights that year, then rebounded to defeat the Oilers in seven games in the Cup Final last year. They’ve pretty much seen it all, both the highs and the lows.
“Yeah, I mean, this isn’t our first time here,” Tkachuk said. “And to get here, you go through a lot of ups and downs. Got a lot of battle scars.
“And hey, (we) looked at the bright side. We get to play a few more periods with each other.”
Panthers at Oilers | Recap | SCF, Game 2
Through its playoff appearances the past three years, Florida has experienced an emotional roller coaster.
Last spring, the Panthers built a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 Cup Final against the Oilers only to lose three straight and risk becoming only the fifth team in NHL history to lose a series in those circumstances. Instead, they responded with a 2-1 win in Game 7 to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
In their Eastern Conference Second Round Series against Toronto this year, they lost the first two games and were in danger of dropping Game 3 until Marchand (yes, him again) scored the winner in overtime to give the Panthers a 5-4 win. Florida would go on to win the series in seven games.
It’s the type of resiliency that has seen them win 10 of their past 11 postseason series.
General manager Bill Zito is evidence of that.
When a Marchand shot led to a mad scramble in the first overtime period on Friday, Zito jumped to his feet in the Panthers managerial box at Rogers Place. Instead, his cheers turned to jeers when the puck nestled against the goal post before being swept away by a defender at the last second.
“I thought it was in,” he said after the game.
No matter. On this night, he, like his team, would eventually get off the mat and emerge victorious.
Like they almost always seem to do.
FLA vs. EDM
FLA vs. CAR | EDM vs. DAL
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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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