SUNRISE | The Panthers’ journey is eerily similar to that of the Canadiens in 1993. That playoff’s Cinderella team, the Floridians, clinched another overtime win.
• Also read: [VIDÉO] Stanley Cup Finals: Badly hit, Matthew Tkachuk staggers but stays in the game
• Also read: Is Mark Stone’s Stock Legal?
This time it was Carter Verhaeghe who played the heroes. By defeating Adin Hill, he enabled his team to defeat the Golden Knights by a score of 3 to 2. At the same time, he saved his team from having their backs to the wall.
It is the seventh time this spring that Paul Maurice’s side have the best team of their opponents after 60 minutes of regular play.
It’s the first team to do so since the Mighty Ducks in 2003. It will be remembered that on their last conquest, the Habs won ten games in overtime after losing the first time.
This is the Panthers’ first win in history in the Stanley Cup Finals. A win that comes exactly 27 years to the day after the opening game of the Florida finals.
Tkachuk sounded
The overtime was provided by Matthew Tkachuk. The Panthers forward was stunned by a check from Keegan Kolesar in the first period and returned in the second period after sticking to concussion protocol.
He was probably asked to count to five in the correct order.
Oddly enough, this check, scattered near the blue line, oddly resembled the check he gave Jack Eichel in the second game.
Back then he had carefully warned his rivals to play with their heads held high lest they meet the same fate.
Meager! With 2:13 left on the clock he scored the equaliser. A concussion (?), a goal, a pass. After Gordie Howe’s hat-trick, did Matthew Tkachuk have his first hat-trick?
Old Bob
The Panthers also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Sergei Bobrovsky. While his teammates spent part of the evening preaching about indiscipline, the Russian multiplied key saves.
Bobrosvky has been overwhelming since the start of the finals and found the touch that allowed him to push his teammates through to the finals.
In the third period, his saves against Mike Amadio and William Karlsson kept the hosts alive.
In the second game he also showed himself at the expense of Brayden McNabb with an unexpected sideways movement.
Marchesault again
After the loss, Jonathan Marchessault continued his march to the Conn Smythe Trophy. The Quebec forward was involved in both goals for the Golden Knights. As an accomplice to Mark Stone, he scored his 13th goal of the playoffs. A 13th in his last 13 games.
The goal made him the third player in 35 years to score in each of the first three games of the final. Steve Yzerman (1997) and Jake Guentzel (2017) are the other two.
Even more impressively, he became the first since Dick Ducff with the Canadiens in 1969 to hit the target with a powerful attack in each of the first three games of the Finals. All this allowed him to increase his streak to eight meetings with at least one point (8 goals, 5 assists).
The Panthers will look to even the odds in this series on Saturday night.