In the aftermath of the Florida Panthers’ win on Friday, most of the talk was about the great offensive plays and players.
For Florida, Brad Marchand scored twice on breakaways, including at 8:05 of the second overtime, and Sam Bennett set an NHL record with his 12th road goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
For Edmonton, Connor McDavid had three assists, including his dazzling stickhandling and feed to Leon Draisaitl on the power play. Draisaitl had two more points (one goal, one assist), and Corey Perry scored with 18 seconds left in the third period to force overtime.
“I don’t think that we talk about the two goalies enough in this series,” Maurice said. “There were some good saves made at both ends. High-end saves.”
Maurice’s opinion had not changed after reviewing some of the video Saturday morning.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 42 of 46 shots for the Panthers in Game 2, including 13 in the first overtime. Stuart Skinner stopped 37 of 42 for the Oilers, including 11 over the two overtimes.
Through the first two games of the Cup Final, Bobrovsky has stopped 84 of 92 shots.
Skinner has stopped 66 of 74 shots for a 2.90 GAA and an .892 save percentage.
That’s why when most of Florida’s players jumped off the bench to mob Marchand after he scored his winning goal. defenseman Nate Schmidt headed toward Bobrovsky instead.
“Just wanted to hug ‘Bob,’” Schmidt said. “I just wanted to give him a big hug. He was so good for us, and, in the back half of the game, (he) was great.”
