It’s pretty much do-or-die for the Edmonton Oilers as they return home to Rogers Place for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night.
They trail the Florida Panthers 2 games to none in the best-of-seven series.
Game time is 8 o’clock EDT and will air on ABC and live stream on ESPN+ and live stream on fubo TV (FREE trial) and DirecTV Stream (FREE trial and discount).
Florida, the Eastern Conference champs, has played pretty much a flawless series so far, winning Game 1 by a 3-0 score and then following that up with a 4-1 win in Game 2.
The Panthers stifled the Oilers’ offense through much of Game 2, holding them to seven shots through two periods. Once Edmonton got some offensive momentum in the third period, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped everything shot at the net.
- TIME: 8 p.m. EDT
- TV: ABC
- LIVESTREAM; ESPN+, fubo TV (FREE trial) and DirecTV Stream (FREE trial and discount)
He has yielded two goals or fewer for the 12th time in his last 13 games for a Panthers team that has won 14 of 19 postseason games and reversed a trend where it had never held a series lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
They have been effective in shutting down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and have silenced the Oilers’ exceptional power play, which is 0 for 7 through two games.
Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner has played well, stopping 40 of the 45 shots he has faced, and the goals he has allowed have largely come off turnovers and mistakes made by defenders in front of him.
The Panthers, who left Florida a few hours late on Wednesday because of heavy rains across the state, have history on their side as they get within two games of hoisting the Cup for the first time in franchise history.
- WATCH: 8 p.m. EDT on ABC and live stream on ESPN+ and live stream on fubo TV (FREE trial) and DirecTV Stream (FREE trial and discount)
This is the fourth consecutive season that a team has taken a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final. All three of the previous teams — the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 (against Florida), Colorado Avalanche in 2022 (against the Tampa Bay Lightning) and Lightning in 2021 (against the Montreal Canadiens) — won the Cup.
But the advantage goes deeper than that.
Only six times in NHL history — and only twice in 10 attempts since 2009 — has a team worked its way back from a 2-0 series deficit and won the Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins overcame series deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to beat the Vancouver Canucks in seven games in 2011, and the Pittsburgh Penguins overcame also rallied back from being down 2-0 and 3-2 to beat the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in 2009.
Before those two, the most recent instance of a team rallying back from a 2-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup was the Canadiens in 1971.
“I think we feel that we came here and played well enough that we should have a split,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch told The Associated Press. “It doesn’t always happen.”
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