The Florida Panthers took a 2–0 lead in the final series of the hockey league NHL. The team won the second final 4–1 at their home arena, even though Edmonton executed the team’s Finnish players.
Knee strike, cross stick and elbow strike to the head.
Florida’s Finnish players received ugly blows in the second NHL final against Edmonton. Despite the physicality of Edmonton, Florida beat Edmonton 4–1 in their home arena and took a 2–0 lead in the final series.
The most talked about situation of the match was seen in the middle of the final set, when Edmonton superstar Leon Draisaitl jumped to tackle the Florida captain with an elbow Alexander Barkov on. Barkov went to the ice after an ugly hit. After a while of blowing, Barkov was taken to the suit protectors and he never returned to the ice.
Edmonton led the match after the opening set 1–0 defender Mattias Ekholmin with a goal, but the Panthers rose to the level of the Finnish pack in the second period Niko Mikkolan on the finish line. In the final set, Florida forged three goals, after already succeeding in the opening final Evan Rodrigues scored two goals and Aaron Ekblad one into an empty net.
About the Finns of Florida Anton Lundell was a strong presence in the match, as he collected two assists and defended brilliantly throughout the match against Edmonton’s star players. Lundell also had a hard time, because Edmonton Vincent Desharnais hit him at the end of the second period with an ugly cross stick to the hands after the situation.
Eetu Luostari was knee tackled
Midway through the first period in Edmonton Warren Foegele was kicked out of the match when he took a knee Eetu from the Monastery. Luostarinen carried the puck across the offensive zone and Foegele stopped him badly. Luostarinen was left lying on the ice and limped his left leg, but returned to the game.
Florida’s five-minute superiority was really quiet and “peaked” by the Panthers defender by Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the struggle and Ekholm’s lead goal in the draw. The Oilers got into a 2-on-1 offense as the teams played to a tie. Ekholm decided to shoot and strongly surprised the player who played in the opening final Sergei Bobrovsky between the legs.
The situation started when the Florida defender Aaron Ekblad came up in the offensive zone to pressurize too deep and Edmonton took advantage of the defender’s faltering.
The Panthers took strange losses in the opening final and also in the second final. For example Sam Bennett at the beginning of the opening set, he got himself into a scrimmage when he started to tackle Evan Bouchard in the offensive zone and ended up just fending off an Edmonton defender.
In the second set, Florida improved its puck game tremendously and played its best set of the final series. The team led the shooting statistics 22–7 after two periods. At the same time, the Panthers kept Edmonton out of dangerous scoring positions. The same continued in the final set as well.
Edmonton’s star players didn’t even manage to dominate, even though Florida took six two-minute ice-outs in the match. Edmonton has not managed to dominate even once in the final series, even though the team’s superiority in the playoffs was almost 40 percent.
At the same time, there have been some surprising offensive success from Florida. Rodrigues scored the winning goal in the third period and after his two-goal night, he is the best scorer in the final series with a total of three goals.
The Finns weren’t the only ones who were targeted by Oilers players. At the end of the third period, the Canadian striker Sam Carrick hit the Florida defender really badly with his stick Dmitry Kulikov between the crotch. After this, Carrick hit another Panthers forward who skated past Steve Lorentzia hand to the face.
Carrick received a 10-minute conduct penalty for the situation. Desharnais also got the same sentence in a hurry.
The match series moves to Edmonton next, where the next two matches are scheduled. Four wins are required for the championship.