In Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, the story is the Vegas Golden Knights playing the role of experienced older brother while the Panthers went wild. But returning to Florida for Game 3 gave the Panthers exactly what they needed, a little home cooking, and with that the Panthers pulled off a comeback to win 3-2 in overtime, earning the first-ever Stanley Cup Final win in franchise history.
Florida returned to the recipe that helped them get to the final in the first place, goaltending, and a physical brand of hockey. In the first three rounds, they had played on the line but didn’t cross it. They needed to return to that brand to keep Vegas from winning Game 3 and taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the series.
After being pulled in Game 2 on Monday night, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 of 27 shots in his first career Cup Final win. Going back to Goalie Bob shows that head coach Paul Maurice has full confidence in his abilities despite some below-average play in Games 1 and 2.
“I can’t even count how many huge saves Bob [Sergei Bobrovsky] made tonight. At least 10. We’re so confident with him back there. Yeah, he’s amazing.” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe on Sergei Bobrovksy’s Game 3 performance Thursday night.
The other key to Florida’s best player, Matthew Tkachuk, a Hart Trophy finalist this season, return to playing a more controlled brand of hockey. In Vegas, he spent more time in the penalty box (36 minutes) than on the ice (34 ½ minutes) as the Golden Knights dominated by a 12-4 score taking a 2-0 series lead. It seemed to take a Keegan Kolesar hit to knock some sense into Tkachuk, who then scored a late game-tying goal with less than four minutes left to send the game into overtime.
Keegan Kolesar with a hit on Matthew Tkachuk. 😳 pic.twitter.com/qw8kUj1C7g
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 9, 2023
Paul Mauice noted the importance of the Panthers regaining control of their emotions: “I think the Boston series was more physical than this series,” referring to the Panthers’ first-round win. “I think we’ve made this series more physical than it needs to be. We had 22 hits in the first period in Game 2. Prorate that out, and you don’t need 66 hits in a game. There’s an energy cost to that. We have hitters … but I don’t necessarily need Carter Verhaeghe to have five. I don’t think physicality and discipline have necessarily anything to do with each other. Discipline is a touchy subject right now for us, and we’ll just leave it at that.”
The Round Table
Losing Game 3 did slow Vegas’ roll to a championship, but the way the series has gone, it will take far more tthan two good periods of hockey from the Panthers to stop the Golden Knights from hoisting the Cup. An important aspect to note is their focus: they have only lost consecutive games once on this playoff run, when the Dallas Stars won Games 4 and 5 before Vegas won the series in Game 6.
The Golden Knights approach will not change. Despite losing the lead late, and then dropping Game 3, Vegas has played a physical, disciplined style of hockey while scoring opportunistic goals thanks to the undisciplined Panthers, as Vegas has gone 6 of 17 (35.3%) on the power play.
“We’re not going to change a lot. We don’t need to,” coach Bruce Cassidy said on Friday morning. “We’re not going to beat ourselves up over (Game 3). We’re going to do what we’ve always done. We’re going to work to get better and keep growing our game and hopefully be better.”
As good as they have been at home, they’ve gone 6-3 on the road in these playoffs, counting Thursday’s overtime loss. They also hold a regular-season road record of 26-7-8, which is one of the best in the NHL over the last two decades. So watch for the Knights to continue their dominance in front of the Panthers’ net as they try to return to Vegas with a 3-1 series lead and propel themselves to the franchise’s first Cup in their long, six-year history.
