Amid blowout and brawl, Florida Panthers set records in Game 3 Cup Final win

Miami Herald

2 days ago

The blowout win was the priority. The Florida Panthers routed the Edmonton Oilers 6-1 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
The fracas at the end will get the attention. A full-line brawl ensued with about nine-and-a-half minutes left when the Oilers, in their own words, lost their composure and tried to show any semblance of fight by, well, fighting down the stretch of a game that was out of their hands. Eight players received ejections by the end of the game — five from Edmonton, three from Florida.
In between it all, the Panthers found their way into the record books in multiple ways during the win on Monday.
A full rundown of milestones accomplished...
▪ Brad Marchand, who had the double-overtime game-winner in Game 2, opened scoring 56 seconds into regulation, the fastest goal by a Panthers player in a Stanley Cup Final game and the fourth-fastest goal to open a playoff game ever in franchise history.
Marchand has four goals this series and has scored in all three games thus far. At 37 years old, Marchand is the oldest player to score in the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final, besting the previous mark held by 35-year-old Frank Mahovlich in 1973 with Montreal.
Marchand, whose 11 career Stanley Cup Final goals are the most among active players, also became the first player in NHL history to score an overtime goal and then an opening minute goal in the following game in the Stanley Cup Final.
▪ Sam Bennett, who scored in the second period on a breakaway to push Florida's lead to 4-1, and Marchand became the second set of teammates in NHL history to open a Stanley Cup Final with a goal streak of three-plus games. They joined Minnesota North Star forwards Steve Payne (four games) and Dino Ciccarelli (three games) in 1981.
▪ The Panthers scored at least five goals in a game for the 11th time this postseason. They are the sixth team to have at least that many five-goal games in a single postseason and the first since the the 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins.
▪ Panthers coach Paul Maurice became the third head coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games (combining the regular season and playoffs). The others are Scotty Bowman (1,467) and Joel Quenneville (1,090).
▪ Florida winger Carter Verhaeghe's first-period power-play goal held up as the game-winner, making it his third career game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final. He is just the sixth player in the past 30 years to record at least three career Cup Final game-winning goals, joining Brett Hull (four), Adam Henrique (three), Jeff Carter (three), Peter Sykora (three) and Sergei Fedorov (three).
▪ Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has now made 116 saves in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, which is tied for the second most through three games of a Final. The others with as many are Tuukka Rask (120 in 2013) and Olie Kolzig (116 in 1998).
Bobrovsky was 32 for 33 on Monday against Edmonton, including a perfect 21 for 21 at even strength. In three games this series, Bobrovsky has a stellar .957 save percentage (89 for 93) at five-on-five.
▪ Defenseman Nate Schmidt had a secondary assist on Verhaeghe's first-period goal. That gives him five assists so far in the Cup Final, tied for the most in a single Cup Final in franchise history. Anton Lundell also had five in the 2024 Cup Final. Schmidt is also one of eight defensemen in NHL history to open a Stanley Cup Final with an assist streak of at least three games, joining Brad Stuart (four games with Detroit in 2008), Stefan Persson (four games in 1982 with the New York Islanders), Denis Potvin (twice; four games in 1982 w the Islanders and three games in 1983 with Islanders), Robyn Regehr (three games in 2004 with Calgary), Paul Coffey (three games in 1987 with Edmonton), Craig Hartsburg (three games in 1981 Minnesota) and Bobby Orr (three games in 1970 with Boston).