Panthers’ playoff road dominance has them in record book and one win from repeat
The Florida Panthers played probably as close to a perfect road game as they could on Saturday.
It has them at the top of the NHL record book and one win away from repeating as Stanley Cup champions as a result.
Florida’s 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final was the team’s 10th road win of this year’s playoffs. That’s tied for the most in a single playoffs in NHL history. The feat has been accomplished six other times, by the St. Louis Blues in 2019, Washington Capitals in 2018, Los Angeles Kings in 2012, Calgary Flames in 2004, and New Jersey Devils in 2000 and 1995. Five of those six teams won the Stanley Cup, with the Flames the lone exception.
The Panthers now lead the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final 3-2 and have their first chance to wrap up the series at home on Tuesday.
“We just try to go out there and have fun,” Panthers center Anton Lundell said. “I know the pressure feels around us and we all know where we are, so just this team, everyone is ready to step up and give everything. We battle very hard.”
Added center Sam Bennett: “We love being together. We’re a close team, and we love being together on the road and spending a lot of time together. We feed off the crowd cheering against us. I think we enjoy that. We use that to our advantage.”
That they have.
Florida has had to start on the road in every series of this Stanley Cup playoffs, a byproduct of finishing the regular season with 98 points and third in the Atlantic Division.
No problem.
The Panthers went 3-0 on the road in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning to win that series in five games.
They went 2-2 on the road in the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs to win that series in seven games.
They went 3-0 on the road in the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes to win that series in five games.
And they are 2-1 on the road in the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers.
“We have no choice,” Panthers star winger Matthew Tkachuk said earlier this series about playing well on the road. “I think every team we were going to play this year in playoffs, especially after the first round, we knew we were going to be on the road for the rest of it. We forced ourselves [into] it. We made our bed and had to sleep in it. ... We feel comfortable on the road. It’s a simple game. It’s a hard game. It’s an adversity type of game, an adversity type of atmosphere. We’ve said it a bunch. It’s that us-against-the-world mindset.”
Florida has an NHL-record 61 road goals this playoffs and has outscored opponents by 30 goals in their 13 road games this postseason.
On Saturday, the Panthers also played a textbook game defensively. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was stellar through the first 10 minutes — which coach Paul Maurice says is arguably the most important time in a road game because it helps to “keep the building from lighting up” and minimizes the emotions from the crowd — before Florida finally struck and scored twice to close out the period.
They went into shutdown mode after that. Edmonton registered a series-low 21 shots on goal and had only eight high-danger scoring chances according to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick. The Oilers did score twice in the third period — first by Connor McDavid 7:24 into the final frame and again by Corey Perry with 3:13 left to play — but Florida held a three-goal lead at both junctures.
Florida went 3 for 3 on the penalty kill — and now has killed off 87.5 percent of opponents’ power plays on the road this postseason — and Bobrovsky stopped 19 of 21 shots for his seventh road game this playoffs giving up two goals or fewer.
“No game’s gonna be perfect,” Bennett said, “but that was a solid game right from the start. I thought our start was big. We were on them on the forecheck hard and a little bit more composed tonight. Learned from last game. Our PK was great tonight. Bob was unbelievable again. So pretty solid game.”
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