Sunrise, Fl— Sergei Bobrovsky and The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
Bobrovsky made 32 saves for the Panthers for his second shutout of the Stanley Cup Finals playoff run and third of his career. Carter Verhaeghe scored a goal and Alexander Barkov added two assists in the win.
The Oilers were led by Connor McDavid with six shots and goalie Stuart Skinner made 15 saves in the loss. The Oilers outshot the Panthers 32 to 18.
Bobrovsky has allowed two goals or fewer in 11 of the last 12 games this postseason. After the game Bobrovsky stated that he knows this series won’t be easy.
“They’re really really good and I know this will be a long series.” Bobrovsky said.
The Panthers scored at 3:59 of the first period with a goal from Verhaeghe after a great pass from Barkov to beat Skinner to make it 1-0. The goal was Verhaeghe’s 10th goal of the postseason.
Evan Rodrigues gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead at 2:16 of the second period. The Panthers would benefit from a little “puck luck” when Brandon Montour would dump the puck into the offensive zone. The puck then took a fortunate bounce to Sam Bennett who made a pass to a wide open Rodrigues in the slot that beat Skinner top shelf.
The Oilers would go 0-3 on the power play which is widely considered as one of the best power plays this season. The Panthers also out hit the Oilers 63-35.
The Panthers would add an empty net goal at 19:55 to make it 3-0 by Eetu Luostarinen.
Game 2 will be on Monday at 8 p.m. at Amerant Bank Arena.
Hockey Valley 2.0 
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