Penalty Party: Panthers Run Oilers in Game 3 Cup Final Rout

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers played their first home game in two weeks Monday night when they welcomed the Edmonton Oilers for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Well, it wasn’t so much of a welcome than a kick in the pants.

Or, a punch in the throat.

Brad Marchand set the tone for what kind of night it would turn out to be for the Oilers, scoring 56 seconds in. The Panthers did not stop there, and ended up blowing out Edmonton 6-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

Game 4 of the 2025 Final is Thursday night in Sunrise.

It should be a doozy.

So, the Panthers get an extra day to enjoy this; the Oilers get an extra day to stew over it.

And they cannot be happy they got sucked into playing the kind of game the Panthers love to play.

Florida took control of the game in the second period.

After taking a 2-0 lead into the second off goals from Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe, Corey Perry made it 2-1 on a power-play goal for the Oilers.

Only a pair of goals from Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett 4:26 apart gave the Panthers plenty of breathing room to let Sergei Bobrovsky do what he does.

Bobrovsky, who stopped 84 shots in the first two games of this series, made 30 saves in this one.

Aaron Ekblad scored a power-play goal early in the third and that was it for Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner after 18 saves.

This came after Jake Walman squirted water down toward the Florida bench near the end of the second.

So, there was plenty of physicality in this one, but nothing like the donnybrook that came midway through the third when Jonah Gadjovich and Darnell Nurse went toe-to-toe at center ice.

Three players on each side — Gadjovich, AJ Greer, and Bennett from Florida — got tossed.

They would not be the last.

SCF GAME 3: PANTHERS / OILERS

• Marchand opened the scoring with his eighth goal of the postseason – and his third straight game to start the Final. He tied Ray Sheppard for third-most by a Florida player in their first postseason with the club and trails only Matthew Tkachuk (11) and Dave Lowry (10).
• By scoring 56 seconds in, Marchand became the first player in NHL history to win a game in OT and then follow it up with the opening goal in the next.
• Verhaeghe passed Reinhart for the franchise record with his ninth power-play postseason goal.
• The Panthers lost their goal horn before the start of Game 3 and it did not play and is considered day-to-day.

SCORING: PANTHERS / OILERS

• Florida 1, Edmonton 0 (0:56 1st): Brad Marchand does it again, scoring off a feed through traffic from Anton Lundell.
• Florida 2, Edmonton 0 (17:45 1st PP): Carter Verhaeghe fires one over Stuart Skinner’s right shoulder.
• Florida 2, Edmonton 1 (1:40 2nd PP): Corey Perry gets another goal, this one off the power play with Lundell in the box for something or other.
• Florida 3, Edmonton 1 (3:00 2nd): Sam Reinhart gets his first of the Final after Sasha Barkov forces a turnover deep in the offensive zone and gets it to Verhaeghe.
• Florida 4, Edmonton 1 (7:26 2nd): Sam Bennett gets loose on a breakaway and walks in on Skinner, beating him high with a backhanded shot.
• Florida 5, Edmonton 1 (3:27 3rd PP): Aaron Ekblad scores on a sweet feed from Reinhart and chases Skinner.
• Florida 6, Edmonton 1 (16:10 3rd PP): Evan Rodrigues pounds a shot from the left circle.

FHN’S 3 STARS OF GAME 3

• 1. Brad Marchand, Florida
• 2. Sam Reinhart, Florida
• 3. Carter Verhaeghe, Florida

2025 STANLEY CUP FINAL

GAME 4

EDMONTON OILERS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

Florida Leads Best-of-7 Series 2-1

• When: Thursday, 8 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• National TV: TNT/truTV 
• National Streaming: Max
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys), SiriusXM
• Radio Streaming: SiriusXM, NHL App
• Series Schedule (all games at 8 p.m., TNT) — Game 1: @Edmonton 4, Florida 3 (OT); Game 2: Florida 5, @Edmonton 4 (2OT); Game 3: @Florida 6, Edmonton 1; Game 4: @Florida, Thursday; Game 5: @Edmonton Saturday; Game 6*: @Florida, Tuesday June 17; Game 7*: @Edmonton, Friday June 20.
• How They Got Here: Edmonton d. Los Angeles (6), Vegas (5), Dallas (5); Florida d. Tampa Bay (5), Toronto (7), Carolina (5)
• Postseason History: Florida Won 2024 Stanley Cup Final 4-3
• Regular Season: Panthers won 2-0
• All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-18-0, 3 ties