Montreal (AFP) – Brad Marchand scored two goals to lead Florida to a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers that put the Panthers one win away from their second straight NHL Stanley Cup title on Saturday. The victory in Edmonton gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final. They can secure the trophy for a second straight year when they host game six on Tuesday. Game seven, if needed, will be in Edmonton.
Less than 48 hours after a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Oilers in game four — in which Florida became the first team in Cup Final history to lose after leading by at least 3-0 in the first period — the Panthers bounced back. Marchand gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 9:12 of the first, bringing the puck in after a center ice face-off and beating Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard on the high glove side. Sam Bennett doubled the score with a shot from the left circle, delivering his 15th goal of these playoffs at 18:06 of a first period in which the Oilers had just three shots on goal.
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After a scoreless second half, Marchand struck again at 5:12 of the third, taking an Eetu Luostarinen pass in the neutral zone and eluding Oilers defenseman Jake Walman to beat Pickard with a backhander to make it 3-0. “I’m just enjoying every moment,” said Marchand, the 37-year-old who was acquired from the Boston Bruins in March. “It’s such a special group of guys and I’m having so much fun here right now.” I honestly feel like a young guy in the league again,” added Marchand, who now has 13 career goals in Stanley Cup Final games, including six in this series. He’s the first player to have six goals in the championship series since Esa Tikkanen in 1988.
Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the series at 7:24 of the third. But any Oilers’ hopes of another unlikely comeback triumph immediately took a hit when Sam Reinhart scored to push the Panthers’ lead to 4-1. And after Corey Perry cut the deficit to 4-2, Luostarinen put it out of reach with an empty-netter with 1:19 remaining. Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 of 21 shots he faced, and Edmonton, trying to become the first Canadian team since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 to capture the Cup, were 0-for-3 on the power play. Pickard, who started in goal for the first time in the Final after taking over from Stuart Skinner after the first period of game four, allowed four goals on 18 shots.
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