Sergei Bobrovsky brilliant as Panthers blank Oilers in Stanley Cup final opener
CBC
Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves to register the third playoff shutout of his career as the Florida Panthers defeated the visiting Edmonton Oilers 3-0 on Saturday to take a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup final.
Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Eetu Luostarinen, into an empty net, scored for Florida. Aleksander Barkov had two assists.
Stuart Skinner stopped 15 shots for Edmonton.
Game 2 of a title series with the furthest distance between competing cities in NHL history goes Monday back at Amerant Arena before the best-of-seven series shifts to the Alberta capital.
The Oilers are in the final for the first time since 2006 and are looking for their first sip from hockey's holy grail since winning the franchise's fifth Cup in 1990.
The Panthers have never topped the NHL mountain after making the championship matchup in 1996 and 2023.
Florida opened the scoring at 3:59 of the first period when Verhaeghe scored his 10th goal of the post-season off a slick feed from Barkov on the home side's first shot.
The Oilers, who are looking to become the first Canadian team to bring the Cup across the border since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, controlled much of the action from there, but couldn't solve Bobrovsky.
Edmonton killed off its 29th straight penalty later in the period before Henrique was denied by Bobrovsky on a breakaway and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was stoned on a power-play move to the backhand as the Panthers went more than 10 minutes without a shot.
Edmonton's scorching man advantage couldn't connect on an opportunity that stretched from late in the first to early in the second — Zach Hyman fired high from in tight with Bobrovsky down and out — before Florida doubled its lead.
Sam Bennett beat Oilers defenceman Cody Ceci to the puck in the corner and caught both Darnell Nurse and Evander Kane napping in front for Rodrigues to score his fourth at 2:16.
Bobrovsky then went to work, stopping a Bouchard chance that was batted out of mid-air a Ceci blast that looked to be heading in hit teammate Corey Perry in the crease.
Bennett then crunched McDavid — his minor hockey teammate growing up in the Greater Toronto Area — with a solid check.
Things turned a little nasty in what's expected to be a physical series when Connor Brown pushed both Bobrovsky and the frozen puck into Florida's net on a sequence that was immediately waved off.
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