Ten seconds after that Cats captain Aleksander Barkov banked a rebound to make it 2-1 ... apparently. Edmonton challenged there was an offside penalty, and won. Replays suggested Sam Reinhart was approximately one millimeter over the line on a play you’d think too close and debatable to negate a goal.

Florida coach Paul Maurice certainly thought so.

He was demonstratively irate behind the bench, a degree in lip-reading not required to to see him clearly screaming, “No [bleep]ing way!”

The Oilers made it 3-0 on Zach Hyman’s low shot to Bobrovsky’s right just 1:39 before the end of the second period, a demoralizer, and the fourth straight game this series the Cats goaltender has given up three-plus goals for a team built on defense-first.

Then Barkov scored a goal not even the referees could deny to make it 3-1 1:28 into the third period on an assist from Carter Verhaehge.

But that was it ... except for a pair of Edmonton empty-net goals with around three minutes left.

And now his Panthers are in jeopardy of being the first team since 1942 to lead a Stanley Cup Final 3-0 and not raise the Cup. That would see the Cats labeled as the new face of what it means to choke. (Sports fans and social media are not renowned for sympathy and kindness, as you may have heard.)

Teams with a 3-0 lead are 206-4 all time in the postseason and 27-1 in the Final dating to that lone exception in ‘42.

There is no in-between for what Monday night will bring, the weight of it.

And the stakes are as great for the team from the province of Alberta in western Canada.

...continued

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