PANTHERS VS.OILERS | NHL GAME HIGHLIGHTS

 

NHL HIGHLIGHTS | OILERS VS. PANTHERS

 

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PANTHERS NOW 2 WINS FROM STANLEY CUP, TOP OILERS 4-1 FOR 2-0 LEAD ON TITLE SERIES

AP Photo 

 SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl knocked Florida's Aleksander Barkov out of the game. The Panthers made sure they responded by landing the bigger blow.

And the Stanley Cup Final took a heated turn Monday night.

Evan Rodrigues had a pair of third-period goals, Niko Mikkola and Aaron Ekblad also scored and the Panthers used yet another airtight finishing kick to pull away and beat the Oilers 4-1 for a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 18 shots for Florida, which was 1-8 all-time in Cup final games before this series started — and now is two wins away from capturing its first championship. Score through two games: Florida 7, Edmonton 1.

“A six-man job against the best players in the world,” Ekblad said.

But the win came with a price for Florida as the Panthers lost Barkov, their captain when Edmonton forward Draisaitl launched toward him midway through the third period and hit him in the head. Barkov remained down for some time, needed help getting to the bench and went down the tunnel for the Florida locker room for further evaluation.

Florida coach Paul Maurice offered no update on Barkov's condition, and was far more tight-lipped than he tends to be after wins.

“This isn’t The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Maurice said of the Barkov hit. “My feelings don’t matter.”

Mattias Ekholm scored and Stuart Skinner stopped 25 shots for the Oilers, who now have to buck some serious history.

Edmonton has only successfully rallied from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series once — against San Jose in Round 2 of the 2006 playoffs. And teams that start the Stanley Cup Final down 2-0 have come back to win only five times in 54 previous situations.

AP Photo 

“I think we feel that we came here and played well enough that we should have a split," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It doesn’t always happen.”

The series resumes with Game 3 in Edmonton on Thursday night.

“We can certainly be better,” Draisaitl said. “It starts with me. ... I certainly have a lot more to give. Not my best tonight. Obviously, owning that.”

Draisaitl was given only a minor penalty for roughing on the hit that knocked Barkov from the game. Rodrigues got a tip-in goal to make it 3-1, the first power-play score Edmonton allowed in its last 34 times being down a man.

Connor McDavid had a chance to get Edmonton within one on a breakaway with about 6 minutes left. He got stopped by Bobrovsky, and then he and Matthew Tkachuk tussled a bit along the boards after the play — the Panthers still steaming over the hit on Barkov.

“I have no response or comment on that,” Tkachuk said when asked what he thought of Draisaitl's hit on Barkov, and if he had a level of concern that Florida's captain could miss time.

Said McDavid of the hit: “I thought it was part of the game.”

And added Ekblad: “We're hoping he'll be fine.”

Emotions were high all night. Edmonton’s Warren Foegele was ejected in the first period for a knee-on-knee hit that knocked Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen from the game briefly; that ejection, plus an injury to Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse left them with only 11 forwards and five defensemen for much of the game.

Rodrigues scored early in the third off a turnover for a 2-1 lead, setting the tone for yet another Florida comeback. The Panthers — who trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes — are now an NHL-best 5-2 when trailing after one period in these playoffs.

Ekblad sealed it with an empty-netter with 2:28 left.

“It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be difficult,” McDavid said. “I'm excited to see what our group's made of.”

Just like Game 1, one team cashed in on its first shot. It was Florida on Saturday, and Edmonton this time.

There wasn't much to it: Ekholm skated nearly the full length of the ice with the teams playing 4-on-4, taking a harmless-looking shot that got between Bobrovsky's leg pads and squirted into the back of the net. McDavid — playing in the building where he got drafted in 2015 — got one of the assists on the goal, his 27th assist of this postseason.

Midway through the second, the Panthers knotted it up. Mikkola had two shots on a shift; one was at the wrong net, and the other more than atoned for that near-blunder.

Moments after he inadvertently wheeled a backhand toward Bobrovsky — who was alert enough to save his teammate from the embarrassment of an own goal — Mikkola handled a delivery from Anton Lundell and blasted it past Skinner to pull Florida into a 1-1 tie.

“Bob was awake,” Mikkola said.

Shots were 22-7 Florida after 40 minutes, the Oilers — who led the league in shots on goal this season — being held to a season-low entering the third. Bobrovsky was tested a ton more in the third than he was in the first two periods, but was up to the task again and yielded two goals or fewer for the 12th time in his last 13 games.

And Florida, for the first time, is two wins from the Cup.

“It's special,” Rodrigues said. “Trying to embrace it. Trying to stay in the moment. That's two big wins for our team, but I think we've already turned the page and are getting ready for Game 3.”

- TIM REYNOLDS

PANTHERS BEAT RANGERS 3-2 IN GAME 5 TO MOVE WITHIN WIN OF STANLEY CUP FINAL RETURN

AP Photo 

 NEW YORK (AP) — The Florida Panthers are on the verge of going back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year and third time in franchise history because they are finding ways to win the tight ones.

Anton Lundell broke a tie with 9:38 left and the Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in Game 5 of of an Eastern Conference final where the teams have been separated by one goal the past four games. Unlike the previous three, this one didn't need extra time.

Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to help the Panthers — who lost to Vegas last year for the title — win their second straight in the best-of-series series.

Bennett said the Panthers aren't talking about a return trip to the Cup final. They are focused on one game at a time, although, the memory of last season is a positive.

“I think it helps a lot," Bennett said. “Just to know the grind. How hard it is. How much it takes to have success — to make it this far — it takes a lot. We learned a lot last year.”

Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves in another magnificent effort. The Presidents’ Trophy winners need to win two straight to return to the final for the first time since 2014. Mike Zibanejad had two assists.

The Panthers can end the series Saturday in Florida. If a seventh game is necessary, it will be at Madison Square Garden, where the Panthers have won twice this series.

This is the first time the Rangers have faced elimination in the playoffs this season.

“There is nothing to say,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “Your back is against the wall. We have to bring our best game to survive another day.”

The go-ahead goal came after the Rangers lost the puck in the Florida end. Eetu Luostarien got the puck, found Lundell at the Rangers' blue line. His shot from the right circle beat Shesterkin.

While it appeared the puck was deflected, many of the Panthers gave veteran Vladimir Tarasenko credit for attempting to tip the puck in front of Shesterkin. They thought it might have affected the goaltender.

“We had chance after chance and just kept grinding," said Lundell, who along with Luostarinen was stopped in close by Shesterkin on shots made between their legs earlier in the period. "We had some great chances. Finally we got the goal.”

Bennett added an empty-net goal with 1:52 left and it proved necessary when Lafreniere scored with 50 seconds to play. The Rangers never got another shot.

“As the emotion increases in this series - the closer you get to the end, every single play, small play counts," said Florida coach Paul Maurice, who team blocked 17 shots and had one giveaway.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said the series has been tight.

“We need to capitalize on some of the ones (chances) that we did generate and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” he said. "It was like I said, it was tight. The game was tight. I thought we had looks and I thought we had chances and they didn’t go in. Came down to one goal. So it’s a 2-1 game.”

Kreider and Zibanejad, who were scoreless in the first four games of the series, combined to give New York the lead with a short-handed goal at 2:04 of the second period.

Kreider broke up a Florida play at the blue line, nudged the puck to Zibanejad and then took a return pass entering the offensive zone and beat Bobrovsky with nifty backhand move, evoking a roar that seemed to have Madison Square Garden shaking.

It was Kreider eighth goal of the playoffs and the Rangers’ sixth short-handed, tying the team postseason record set in 1978-79. New York went on to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to Montreal in five games.

Forsling tied it a little more than six minutes later, taking a perfect pass from Bennett and beating Shesterkin with a backhander that the goalie deflected but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was the defenseman's fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.

Both teams had great chances in the scoreless first period with Bobrovsky stopping Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck in close, and Shesterkin turning aside Kevin Stenlund and getting a little help from a post on Bennett's backhander from point-blank range.

- TOM CANAVAN

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VEGAS HITS THE JACKPOT | BEATS FLORIDA TO WIN STANLEY CUP

USA Today Sports 

The Vegas Golden Knights hit the ultimate National Hockey League jackpot on Tuesday by crushing the visiting Florida Panthers 9-3 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in the expansion franchise's six-year history.

With the victory, the Western Conference's top-seeded Golden Knights closed out the best-of-seven championship series 4-1, triggering celebrations in and around the hotels and casinos along the famed Las Vegas Strip.

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