Brad Marchand is making NHL history at the ripe old age of 37 in the Stanley Cup Final, and his Florida Panthers look well on their way to a second consecutive championship after a dominant 6-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers that was marred by a wild brawl late in the game.
The Panthers now lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.
Less than a minute into Game 3 Monday night, Marchand dented the scoreboard again to get the scoring started for the Panthers. The 16-year NHL veteran has scored four goals through three games so far in the series.
Marchand also put his name in the record books by becoming the oldest player to score in each of the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final. Marchand has scored eight goals this postseason and has 17 total points.
Carter Verhaeghe scored a power play goal for Florida late in the first period to double the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 before the first intermission.
Edmonton quickly cut into Florida’s lead as Corey Perry scored just 1:40 after play restarted. But the Panthers answered with a pair of goals from Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett to extend their lead as the second period ended with Florida ahead 4-1.
Bennett now has a league-leading 14 goals this postseason and equaled his teammate Marchand with his fourth goal of the finals and tallies in all three games.
The Panthers kept piling on in the third period with another power play goal, this time from Aaron Ekblad.
With the game out of reach, the Oilers’ frustrations boiled over. Several Edmonton players took shots at Bennett before Edmonton’s Trent Frederic was penalized for breaking his stick across the center’s ribs.
The gloves came off after that, with everyone except the goalies mixing it up in a brawl in the neutral zone that lasted several minutes. By the time all the players could be separated, the officials had handed out 80 minutes of penalty time for the melee.
The chippy play from the Oilers continued as Evander Kane was issued a 10-minute misconduct a few minutes later for slashing Verhaeghe while he was down on the ice.
In the ensuing Panthers’ power play, the Canadian squad turned its attention to Matthew Tkachuk as a pair of Oilers ganged up on the winger behind the Edmonton net, touching off another round of pushing and shoving.
On the ensuing Panthers power play, Florida added another goal, this time from Evan Rodrigues. The Panthers’ power play has been exceptional this series, with the team scoring five times with an advantage so far in the finals.
As the final horn sounded and plastic rats rained down from the crowd at Amerant Bank Arena, there was yet another skirmish between the two teams that have built up plenty of bad blood despite being separated by more than 2,500 miles.
The two sides met in an epic seven-game championship series last year in which the Panthers emerged victorious. As Florida seizes a 2-1 lead in this year’s series, it’s déjà vu all over again for the Oilers, who have yet to find the formula for defeating the Panthers.
Marchand, who was a trade deadline acquisition for Florida after spending his first 15-plus NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, has been central to the Panthers’ push for back-to-back championships. Although Marchand was injured at the time of the trade, the Panthers were still willing to send a future first-round draft pick to Boston in exchange for the prospect of having Marchand’s veteran leadership coming off the bench in the playoffs.
Florida’s strategic patience appears to be paying off with Marchand’s flurry of goals against the Oilers in the series. Marchand, whose contract expires at the end of this season, will hope to enter free agency with a second Stanley Cup in his trophy case to go along with the championship he won with the Bruins in the 2011.
The Panthers, who are appearing in the Final for the third straight season, will have the chance to inch closer to lifting the Stanley Cup once again when they meet the Oilers for Game 4 on Thursday in Sunrise, Florida.
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