Stanley Cup live updates: Panthers dominate Oilers to win Game 3

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch talks about how the game got away from the team and their struggle to regain their footing.

Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett scored again, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe each got their first goal in the Stanley Cup final, and the defending champion Florida Panthers capitalized on the Edmonton Oilers’ worst performance in weeks to win Game 3 in a 6-1 rout Monday night.

The Panthers lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.

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Corey Perry — at 40 the oldest player in the series — scored the Oilers’ only goal when he beat Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for a power-play goal.

Connor McDavid could not get his team on track, and Edmonton took 15 minors — led by Evander Kane’s three plus a misconduct to add up to 85 penalty minutes — including a brawl that ensued with less than 10 minutes left.

- Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press

Game stats

• Shots: Oilers 33, Panthers 31
• Scoring chances: Panthers 60% (12-8, +4), Oilers 40% (8-12, -4)
• High-danger scoring chances: Panthers 62.5% (5-3, +2), Oilers 37.5% (3-5, -2)
• Fenwick % (unblocked shot attempts): Oilers 60.42% (29-19, +10), Panthers 39.58% (19-29, -10)
• Face-off %: Oilers 51.6%, Panthers 48.4%
• Power play %: Panthers 27.3% (3/11), Oilers 16.7% (1/6)
• Penalty minutes: Oilers 85, Panthers 55
• Hits: Oilers 34, Panthers 26
• Blocked shots: Oilers 17, Panthers 15
• Giveaways: Oilers 12, Panthers 7
• Takeaways: Oilers 3, Panthers 3

9:08 p.m. - Final score: Panthers 6 Oilers 1

The Panthers pounced on the Oilers’ mistakes to win in a rout and take a 2-1 series lead.

9:03 p.m. - Rodrigues scores 5-on-3

With 3:50 left in the third period, forward Evan Rodrigues makes the score 6-1 Panthers on the power play with a two-man advantage.

8:58 p.m. - Kane’s night over with misconduct

Evander Kane took a two-minute minor penalty and a 10-minute misconduct for getting his stick on Carter Verhaege with less than five minutes left in the third period.

8:46 p.m. - A Slap Shot moment

I expected the Hanson brothers to jump over the boards at any moment 10:29 into the third period.

That’s when several Oilers and Panthers players, including Darnell Nurse, Trent Frederic, Sam Bennett, A.J. Greer, Mattias Ekholm, Corey Perry and Jonah Gadjovich, fought each other after Frederic repeatedly cross-checked Bennett, triggering a line brawl of sorts.

It ended with fighting majors for Nurse and Gadjovich, misconducts for six of the aforementioned players, several minor penalties, and the Panthers on a power play.

8:31 p.m. - Skinner pulled for Pickard after 5th goal

Defenceman Aaron Ekblad’s blast past goalie Stuart Skinner to make it 5-1 Panthers spurs Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch to pull Skinner for Calvin Pickard.

8:12 p.m. - 2nd intermission thoughts

• The Oilers’ habit of second-period sags continues. The Panthers owned them in the middle frame last game and they owned them again Monday night.
• Even though the Oilers outshot them 12-9 in the second and lead that department 24-19 after two, the Panthers had better scoring chances.
• Although each team had two high-danger scoring chances in the second, according to Natural Stat Trick, Florida had seven scoring chances to Edmonton’s three.

7:37 p.m. - Bennett scores on breakaway

Sam Bennett goes in alone on goalie Stuart Skinner 7:26 into the second period and scores to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead over the Oilers.

7:32 p.m. - Reinhart regains 2-goal lead for Florida

At the three-minute mark of the second period, Panthers forward Sam Reinhart snaps a shot over the shoulder of Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner blocker side to make the score 3-1 Florida.

7:28 p.m. - Perry gets power-play marker

With centre Anton Lundell in the penalty box, forward Corey Perry scores the Oilers’ first goal of the game, tucking a rebound past Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky while standing next to the goal crease 1:20 into the second period.

7:16 p.m. - 1st intermission thoughts

• Eight penalties, four for each team in the first period, dictated the flow and led to a late goal by Florida to go up 2-0. The Oilers will be on the power play to start the second period.
• As you might imagine given the number of penalty calls, the play was chippy and saw pushing and shoving during stops in play.

7:03 p.m. - Panthers go up by two

Forward Carter Verhaege scores for Florida on the power play with 2:15 left in the first period as Oilers forward Viktor Arvidsson sits in the penalty box for goalie interference. Score: 2-0 Panthers.

6:52 p.m. - Oilers survive 3 penalties in a row

Evander Kane takes cross-checking and high-sticking penalties two-and-a-half minutes apart followed two minutes later by a too-man-men call on the Oilers’ bench. Oilers’ penalty-killers claim success after a penalty to Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad at 11:02 of the first period cancels the last one after about a minute.

6:26 p.m. - Marchand opens scoring

Forward Brad Marchand grabs a rebound in front of goal-mouth traffic and gets the game’s first goal 56 seconds into the first period after shooting the puck over sprawling Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.

6:20 p.m. - Fans from Edmonton in attendance

Several Oilers fans from Edmonton travelled to south Florida to see their favourite team battle for Cup glory.

Jas Rai was one of them. He paid $500 for an upper-bowl seat in the Panthers’ home arena for Game 3 and will be attending Game 4 on Thursday as well.

“I’ve been a season-ticket holder for 13 years, and this is so important,” Jas Rai told CTV News Edmonton from outside Amerant Arena in Sunrise, Fla., an hour before the game. “We’re just here to be fans and fans of our team.”

6:05 p.m. - Nugent-Hopkins will play

His status was in question all day after he missed practice on Sunday with Jeff Skinner in his spot, but forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will play Game 3 in Florida.

4:46 p.m. - Heading in

• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a game-time decision for the Oilers’ coaching staff. While ‘The Nuge’ was on the ice at Monday morning’s skate, he didn’t practise Sunday, with Jeff Skinner skating in his spot on the top line alongside McDavid and Corey Perry. “He’ll take warmup and we’ll decide from there,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch told media on Monday.
• Panthers-Oilers Stanley Cup Final is as tight as can be. Game 3 could tilt the series
• Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse said he and his teammates will have to limit mistakes and “make better plays” to combat the effects of the Panthers’ aggressive forecheck. “Their forecheck is obviously an identity of their team. They’re very good at putting pucks in the right spot and being on top of us as defencemen,” he said Monday morning. “We can move pucks better and make better plays. That will alleviate some of the stress we’ve had to endure. It’s going back there, making plays and having confidence.”
• Overtime decided both Wednesday’s and Friday’s opening two games played at Edmonton’s Rogers Place, with momentum swinging wildly to start before the titans settled into a rhythm and waited patiently for a chance to strike.
• In Game 1, the Oilers pounced on their chance in overtime: A late power play that saw Connor McDavid feed Leon Draisaitl with a cross-crease pass for the one-timer winner.
• In Game 2, it was the Panthers’ turn to make the most of their opportunity, with Brad Marchand scoring on a partial breakaway right after the Oilers’ Mattias Ekholm’s slap shot attempt missed the mark on the other end.
• The Cup Final is now a best-of-five, with the Panthers wresting home-ice advantage and hosting games 3 and 4 Monday and Thursday before the Stanley spotlight returns to Edmonton for Saturday’s Game 5.