Cote: Hated to hero: Marchand's double-OT Panthers goal beats Edmonton, ties Stanley Cup Final

Miami Herald

5 days ago

Coach Paul Maurice dared call these Florida Panthers the best team he has ever coached in his long NHL career, daring mainly because he won his first Stanley Cup championship with last year's Cats.
If this year's team is better to prove Maurice right -- still to be determined -- look back to Game 2 Friday night-into-Saturday morning for the answer why.
Look to Brad Marchand, the most dynamic of the first-year Cats, the clutch veteran ... the difference.
Marchand scored twice including the game-winner in double-overtime that won Game 2, 5-4, and evened this Stanley Cup Final series 1-1.
'It helps the experience these guys have,' Marchand said afterward. 'We have so many leaders on the team. We definitely have that confidence in our group.'
Said teammate Sam Bennett of Marchand: 'He's just an absolute dog. His energy, his battle...'
Florida trailed twice in Edmonton Friday and was facing a 2-0 series deficit, a deep hole that has doomed 50 of 55 teams ever in it, or 91 percent.
Instead the Panthers make the 2,500-mile trip back home flying high as that flight with the series knotted after Friday's dramatic comeback triumph.
Marchand has gone hated-to-hero in a matter of weeks, with a late-season trade bringing him to Sunrise from the rival Boston Bruins, with whom Marchand was despised by Panthers fans and Panthers alike.
My how that script has flipped as Marchand helps the Panthers chase a second straight Stanley Cup crown.
'Us against the world,' as the Cats' Matthew Tkachuk called his team's mindset going in. 'We've got battle scars on us. We're a strong group mentally.'
They proved it Friday and now Games 3 and 4 are on South Florida home ice Monday and Thursday.
It was deep into the second period when Marchand netted what seemed like his first game-winning, short-handed goal -- Florida not only killing the Oilers' advantage but scoring on a breakaway. A perfect pass from Anton Lundell found Marchand in stride and one-one-one vs. Skinner, who stood little chance until he had none and the home crowd went quiet.
The eventual game-winner in the second OT was similar as Lundell fed a pass that Marchand went forehand to backhand to beat goalie Stuart Skinner, who got a piece of the puck but cold not stop it from sliding slowly over the goal line.
Florida led by one goal entering the third period in Game 1 too but would lose in overtime. Not this time.
This time the third period was marked by frantically tenacious defense and by the quiet excellence Cats fans have come to expect of Sergei Bobrvosky.
The seconds were down to fractions Friday night: 17.8 left for Florida to win in regulation.
But that's when an arena and all of Edmonton -- maybe all of Canada -- went from quiet to sonic joy.
That might have been the number that burned into infamy in South Florida sports history.
The Florida Panthers were so close to winning Game 2 and tying this Stanley Cup Final in regulation you could have held your breath for the time that was left. Plenty of fans in South Florida may have been doing just that.
But for the second game in a row the Panthers failed to hold onto a late lead, and watched a game go into overtime, only the sixth time the first two games of a Final have gone into OT.
Florida's would-be 4-3 victory turned to overtime when the Oilers' Corey Perry, age 40, scored the latest regulation game-tying goal in Stanley Cup history.
It was in the second OT that Marchand's goal ended it, finally, as one exhusted team celebrated and the other exhausted team slumped off the ice.
The game began as insanity on ice with Edmonton up, 3-2, after one period -- the five goals the most in a Final first in nine years, and spiced by seven combined power plays borne of myriad physical flareups. This after Game 1 went to overtime.
U.S. TV viewership for Game 1 was down 22 percent from a year earlier. How much excitement do y'all require?
Florida led 1-0 Friday two minutes in on Sam Bennett's wrist-shot score on a power play for his NHL-leading 13th goal this postseason. Edmonton had score first in nine straight games before this.
The deficit appeared not to bother the Oilers. They evened at 1-1 mid-period on Evander Kane's even-strength snap shot inside the upper right net over Sergei Bobrovsky'e left shoulder.
It was 2-1, Edmonton, two minutes later on a straight-on bullet from distance by Evan Bouchard, who has one of the hardest shots in hockey. Aleksander Barkov blocked hsi initial shot, but it caromed back to Bouchard and he cashed the followup. Barkov's shoulders slumped in disbelief.
Florida evened 2-2 when Seth Jones' snap shot lit the lamp and muted the crowd.
The building wasn't quiet for long.
Oilers were up 3-2 one minute later on a power play finished by Leon Draisaitl -- though the penalty so costly to Florida was a greasy one, indeed , one that ought not have been called.
Bennett was boxed for goaltender interference on a play in which he goalie Stuart Skinner was shaken up, though replays showed the Oilers' Mattias Ekholm knocked Bennett into Skinner.
Edmonton's lead nevertheless was earned, as Draisaitl's put he finishing touch on brilliance by Connor McDavid, who slalomed through Barkov and Aaron Ekblad to feed Draisaitl masterfully in close.
The second period settled into normalcy ... until it erupted n Florida's favor.
Midway through the Cats evened it 3-3 on Dmitry Kulikov's hard wobbler that found the net off the right hip of Bouchard. Great passing by Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe controlled the puck until it found Kulikov.
Later in the second the Panthers seized a 4-3 lead on a short-handed goal -- not only killing the Oilers' advantage but scoring on Brad Marchand's breakaway goal. A perfect pass from Anton Lundell found Marchand in stride and one-one-one vs. Skinner, who stood little chance until he had none.
That was the lead Florida failed to hold for 17.8 more seconds.
Then came a first overtime period that was scoreless even as Marchand hit the post with a shot and Sam Reinhart failed to score on a one-on-one breakaway.
Then came the second OT, Marchand's second goal, and a happy flight home filled with renewed hope.