Golden Knights recap: Panthers goaltender bounces back in Game 3
Knights lead series 2-1
■ Game 1 — Golden Knights 5, Panthers 2
■ Game 2 — Golden Knights 7, Panthers 2
■ Game 3 — Panthers 3, Golden Knights 2, OT
■ Game 4 — 5 p.m. Saturday, FLA Live Arena (TNT, TBS, truTV)
■ Game 5 — 5 p.m. Tuesday, T-Mobile Arena (TNT, truTV)
■ Game 6* — 5 p.m. June 16, FLA Live Arena (TNT, TBS, truTV)
■ Game 7* — 5 p.m. June 19, T-Mobile Arena (TNT, TBS, truTV)
* If necessary
RJ’s three stars
3. Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault — Marchessault just keeps scoring in this postseason.
He fired a shot in the first period that Mark Stone tipped into the net to tie the game after Florida scored first.
Marchessault then took a tremendous cross-ice pass from Jack Eichel and buried the puck before Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky could get to that side of the net.
Marchessault has scored in all three games of the Stanley Cup Final and has six points. He also has an eight-game point streak.
2. Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe — Verhaeghe picked up an assist on the game-tying goal by Matthew Tkachuk late in the third period and then fired a blast past Adin Hill on the first shot of overtime to save the Panthers. He had just two shots on goal.
1. Bobrovsky — He looked a lot more like the player who entered this series as the leading Conn Smythe Trophy candidate than the one who showed up at T-Mobile Arena in the first two games.
Bobrovsky was confident and sharp, making big save after big save to keep the Panthers in the game long enough to find an equalizer and eventually the game-winner.
He made 25 saves, though the impact was greater than the total.
Key play
Tkachuk goal at 17:47 of the third period
The Panthers were on the verge of falling behind 3-0 in the series when their star saved the game and perhaps their hopes in the series.
Tkachuk, who briefly left the game in the first period after taking a big hit from Keegan Kolesar, got to the front of the net for one of the few times in the series and cashed in on the position when a rebound fell to him with Hill pulled away from the goal.
The score came shortly after Florida had pulled Bobrovsky in favor of an extra attacker.
Tkachuk’s second tally of the series forced overtime, during which the Panthers won for the first time in a Stanley Cup Final game.
Key stat
23 — Eichel’s assist on Marchessault’s go-ahead goal in the second period was his 23rd point of the postseason, a franchise record. It was also the 23rd point for Marchessault.
Eichel’s 23 points is also tied with Adam Fox for the most by a U.S.-born player in the first 20 playoff games of his career.
The goal was a snapshot of what the two Knights stars have done all postseason. Eichel gathered the puck at the point and skated around a defender before threading a pass across the ice through three defenders to Marchessault.
Knights quotable
“Obviously you don’t want to blow a lead when you’re up a goal with a few minutes left, but it’s all part of it. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Our mindset shouldn’t change. Every game is the most important game of the season.”
— Eichel, on whether the mindset would have been different with a 3-0 series lead instead of 2-1
Panthers quotable
“That’s where I spend most of my time on the ice. My dad has always said the puck is going to have to go through you if it’s going to go in, so why not go to the net? I was just in the right place at the right time. It just landed right on my stick, and I had an open net. It was a very easy goal, actually.”
— Tkachuk, on his ability to get to the net, where he scored the game-tying goal.
Adam Hill Review-Journal
