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Panthers once again can't wrap up Stanley Cup Final vs Oilers. Now, there will be a Game 7.

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on

Published in Hockey

EDMONTON, Alberta — How did this happen?

Just a week ago, the Florida Panthers had a 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final. They were one win away from hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.

They’ve had three chances to lock things up. They’ve failed all three times.

Game 4: An 8-1 blowout on the road.

Game 5: A more respectable but still deflating 5-3 loss on home ice.

And then Game 6 on Friday: A 5-1 defeat at Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

Now, somehow, surprisingly, this all comes down to a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday at Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena.

Only twice in NHL history did a team rally from a 3-0 series deficit to force a winner-take-all Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final: the 1945 Detroit Reds Wings and 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs are the only one of those teams to complete the comeback and win the Cup.

 

Florida was a shell of its normal self early, putting up just two shots on goal (both from distance by defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson) in the first period. That gave Edmonton the chance to take a 1-0 lead on a Warren Foegele snap shot from up close on a feed from Leon Draisaitl.

It was 2-0 Edmonton 46 seconds into the second period when Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark capitalized on a two-on-one rush, with Henrique burying a wrist shot.

Florida appeared to get back within one on an Aleksander Barkov goal 10 seconds later, but the goal was overturned after Edmonton successfully challenged that the play was offside.

The Oilers then went up 3-0 with 1:40 left in the second period when Zach Hyman scooped up a blocked Gustav Forsling shot, went the length of the ice uncontested and beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a backhanded shot.

Barkov put the Panthers on the board early in the third period but Florida failed to get anything else going after that. Edmonton sealed the win with a pair of empty-net goals from Ryan McLeod and Darnell Nurse.

And now, we have Game 7.


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