<p><p>SUNRISE, Fla. – Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett, once bitter rivals, continued their tremendous postseason runs as new teammates by each scoring goals in the Florida Panthers’ convincing 6-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena.</p></p><p><p>Marchand, in the midst of a scintillating series, scored for a third straight game and became the first player in NHL history to follow an overtime goal with a goal inside the first minute of the next game.</p></p><p><p>Bennett, the NHL’s leading goal scorer with 14, then followed suit by scoring for the third straight game in the series as the Panthers took a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 set for Thursday night.</p></p><p><p>Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored a goal and an assist each, Aaron Ekblad and Evan Rodrigrues scored two of the Panthers’ three power-play goals on 11 opportunities and Nate Schmidt picked up his fifth assist in the series to become just the eighth defenseman since the 1967-68 expansion era to open a Stanley Cup Final with a three-game assist streak.</p></p><p><p>Eetu Luostarinen also had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves for his 30th win in the past two postseasons.</p></p><p><p>The Panthers are the sixth team in NHL history to score five or more goals 11 times. This was the eighth time in the past 11 games.</p></p><p><p>Corey Perry scored the lone goal for the Oilers, who se netminder Stuart Skinner allowed five goals on 23 shots before being chased for Calvin Pickard after Ekblad’s goal 3 minutes, 27 seconds into the third period.</p></p><p><p>When a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 23-7 (.767). Overall in the playoffs, the winner of Game 3 in a 1-1 series goes on to claim the series 66.3% of the time (244-124).</p></p><p><p>Here are some takeaways from Monday’s game.</p></p><p><h3>Panthers respond nicely in second</h3></p><p><p>Anton Lundell took a retaliatory penalty at the end of the second period with the Panthers up two and looking like the Oilers didn’t have a shot of a comeback in them.</p></p><p><p>That could have easily turned the momentum when Perry responded with a power-play goal at the start of the second period for his 10th career Stanley Cup Final goal to cut Florida’s deficit in half.</p></p><p><p>But for the third straight second period in the series, it was all Florida from then on. Just 80 seconds later, Reinhart scored his first goal of the series after Aleksander Barkov pressured John Klingberg off the puck.</p></p><p><p>About 4½ minutes after that, Bennett had a monster shift where he rocked Vasily Podkolzin and Klingberg, then beat Skinner on a breakaway after Luostarinen stole the puck from Podkolzin just inside the offensive blue line.</p></p><p><h3>Oilers come undone</h3></p><p><p>It wasn’t just that the Oilers took four penalties in the first period – it was how they took them. They were called for three offensive-zone fouls plus a too-many-men penalty.</p></p><p><p>Evander Kane was sent to the box the first two times in the first eight minutes of the game and both trips were warranted. First, he cross-checked Gustav Forsling in front of the Panthers net with the Oilers on a power play. Later he high-sticked Marchand on the forecheck. Kane was also in the mix as part of the too-many-men penalty.</p></p><p><p>Finally, Viktor Arvidsson was too aggressive around the crease and knocked over Bobrovsky. That led to a Verhaeghe goal on a Florida power play and a 2-0 deficit.</p></p><p><p>The Oilers wound up giving the Panthers 10 power plays and allowed them to score on two of them. It’s hard to win that way.</p></p><p><h3>Marchand for MVP?</h3></p><p><p>Marchand scored the Panthers’ two biggest goals of the playoffs with a couple overtime winners, and his hot streak in the Stanley Cup Final continued Monday night when it took him just 56 seconds to score the game’s first goal and his fourth of the series.</p></p><p><p>At 37, Marchand became the oldest player to score in the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final. The previous mark was held by 35-year-old Frank Mahovlich with the 1973 Canadiens.</p></p><p><p>Marchand now has 11 goals in his Stanley Cup Final career, the most among active players. It was his eighth goal of the postseason, tying Ray Sheppard for the third-most goals by a Panthers player in his first postseason with the club (Matthew Tkachuk, 11; Dave Lowry, 10).</p></p><p><h3>McDavid punished</h3></p><p><p>No individual moment better encapsulated how physically imposing the Panthers were than the sight of Connor McDavid tumbling to the ice after Ekblad stepped up to deliver an open-ice hit at full flight.</p></p><p><p>McDavid was staggered by the contact at the Florida blue line just before the midway point of the game and briefly headed down the tunnel to the Oilers dressing room. He missed less than a minute of game time and played a regular shift after returning.</p></p><p><p>Still, it was a bit jarring to see someone catch the game’s fastest player so cleanly. Ekblad was one of the defenders McDavid walked through while setting up a dazzling Game 2 assist, prompting the Panthers defenseman to say “yeah, McJesus” while summing up the challenges of defending that play.</p></p><p><p>In Game 3, Ekblad made McDavid look mortal by sending him to the ice with a textbook body check delivered shoulder to shoulder. That was one of the game-high five hits Ekblad delivered through 40 minutes.</p></p><p><p>Florida’s game plan is built around a belief that the physical toll will wear down an opponent over the course of a best-of-seven series. They were the aggressors in Monday’s game, highlighted by Bennett bowling over Podkolzin, among numerous other thunderous checks.</p></p><p><h3>Nugent-Hopkins suits up to no avail</h3></p><p><p>After missing Sunday’s practice and being labeled a game-time decision after Monday’s optional morning skate by coach Kris Knoblauch, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did, in fact, play in Game 3.</p></p><p><p>Nugent-Hopkins started the game on his usual (at least of late) spot on the top line with McDavid and Perry. He also had the Oilers’ best chance of the first period when he missed the net on a rebound on a power play. He was quiet otherwise, which probably isn’t surprising given how the Oilers fared.</p></p><p><p>Nugent-Hopkins didn’t even take the ice for a power play to start the second period as the Oilers opted to use two defenseman with Jake Walman taking his spot. The Oilers scored later on that man advantage, and with Nugent-Hopkins on the ice, but it was an unconventional move for them.</p></p><p><p> Nugent-Hopkins played 15:34 and spent the second half of the game centering the second line with Connor Brown and mostly Evander Kane as the Oilers loaded up with McDavid, Perry and Leon Draisaitl on the top line.</p></p>
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