Florida had been flawless in closing teams out over past 3 seasons before series opener
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EDMONTON – A big part of the Florida Panthers’ winning formula in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past three seasons has been closing out games when they had the lead.
Not being able to do that in their 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Wednesday provided the Panthers with their biggest lesson as they look ahead to what they hope will be a long series.
“Don’t sit back,” Panthers center Sam Bennett said. “We’ve been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead and for whatever reason we sat back tonight.”
Leon Draisaitl’s game-winning power-play goal at 19:29 of overtime came with Tomas Nosek in the penalty box after shooting the puck over the glass for a delay of game minor at 18:17. But the Panthers knew Nosek’s unfortunate miscue wasn’t the moment that cost them the game.
“That stuff happens in the game of hockey,” Panthers forward Brad Marchand said. “You know, it’s a bad break.”
Marchand’s power-play goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 12:30 of the first period and they appeared well on their way to a series-opening win when Bennett’s second goal of the game increased their lead to 3-1 at 2:00 of the second period. Although Edmonton answered with a goal from Viktor Arvidsson at 3:17 to pull within 3-2, Florida still appeared to be in good shape heading to the third period with a one-goal lead.
The Panthers had been 31-0 over the past three postseasons when leading after the first or second period. That ability to finish off games has paved their way to three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final and their first championship last season, when they defeated the Oilers by protecting a third period lead in their 2-1 Cup-clinching victory in Game 7.
Seeking redemption for that defeat, Edmonton was determined not to go down easily in Game 1. Connor McDavid set up defenseman Mattias Ekholm for the tying goal from the left circle 6:33 into the third period and only Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky prevented the Oilers from winning the game in regulation.
Edmonton outshot Florida 14-2 in the third period.
“They just pushed,” Marchand said. “A couple pucks we didn’t really get deep. Gotta be a little bit better making plays under pressure, getting our legs going a little bit more. We got caught just kind of flipping pucks, and they’d regroup and come back at us.”
Panthers at Oilers | Recap | SCF, Game 1
The Panthers seemed to reset during the intermission after the third period and began overtime with three shots on goal and eight attempts in the first 1:48. But that failed to yield the winning goal against goalie Stuart Skinner, who stopped the final 24 shots he faced after the Panthers scored three times on their first eight.
The Oilers started to tilt the ice again toward the Panthers’ end as overtime progressed. Bobrovsky, who finished with 42 saves, including nine in overtime, held them off until McDavid fed Draisaitl in the slot for a shot that went in under his glove.
That completed the Oilers’ third multigoal comeback victory of this postseason and the 41st multigoal comeback win in Cup Final history.
“They’ve got a good offense, so we knew that they had a good team,” Bobrovsky said “It’s a good challenge for us. It was a tight game. I thought our guys, we did a great job defending. We had great kills in the first and the second. I thought there were lots of good things, and we just put it behind us and get ready for the next game.
“The next game is a big game.”
The next game is in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX) before the best-of-7 series shifts to Florida for Games 3 and 4. Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he liked “pieces” of what his team did in Game 1, but there was plenty of room for improvement, beginning with its uncharacteristic failure to protect a lead.
“These games are tight,” Maurice said. “I don’t think that you have domination of the third period in tight games. We were in pretty good shape in 3-1. I think we had some real good pressure. They get it back and then, there were some plays we didn’t complete. Not really particularly worried about those.
“Just the ebbs and flows of the game.”
Florida has shown an ability to shake off disappointing losses before this postseason, including after it lost the first two games of the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs before rallying to win that series in seven games. The Panthers will rely on that experience after confirming in Game 1 what they say they expected heading into the series.
“It [has] potential to be just a spectacular seven-gamer,” Maurice said.
Letting Game 1 slip away just put the pressure on the Panthers to respond in Game 2.
“It’s one game,” Marchand said. “You can’t get stuck in the past here. So, we’ll regroup, refocus and get ready for the next one.”
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