Florida’s season was practically two minutes away in the package, but the team rose to victory in overtime.
SUNRISE. Alexander Barkov, by Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen represented by the Florida Panthers narrowed the wins in the Stanley Cup final series to 1–2 early on Friday morning. After dramatic stages, Florida beat Vegas in overtime with a score of 3-2. It scored the equalizing goal just a couple of minutes before the end, playing without a goalkeeper.
The fourth final will be played on Sunday morning in Florida.
‘s hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen brought up three themes as usual.
Florida Toughness
The third final game was a perfect indication of the nature of hockey: the better team does not always win. Florida started well and scored the opening goal, but after falling behind, they fell off the wagon gamely. Vegas controlled the flow of the match for two sets in many places at will, and according to Lehkonen’s calculations, it won the scoring positions in the last two sets 13–3.
Florida and above all its hot goalie Sergei Bobrovsky however, considered the match a one-goal game.
When Vegas couldn’t get a hit in the package, it happened to them, as it so often does in hockey. Florida got one quality chance, tied the game and pulled through in overtime. Of course, there was nothing new here in the case of Florida. It has won several matches during the spring, in which it has been at the bottom of the game at times.
– Ice hockey is a wonderful game. That’s just how it goes sometimes when you stubbornly hang in there and put up with certain things. Then we come to the fact that goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovski decided today to steal this game for himself. He closed the hatches properly, Lehkonen stated on the spot in Sunrise.
– I think robbery is exactly the right word for this point.
You can watch the goal summary of the third final match in the video below.
Vegas lacked the final sharpness
As another theme in the match, Lehkonen raised Vegas’ sharpness in finishing. The team from Casino City, which won the first two matches of the final series, actually played an excellent away match, but it didn’t get a win – and on the other hand, it wasn’t just a coincidence.
According to Lehkonen, the last sharpness in the away team’s playing shone through its absence.
– Vegas was on top of the game for at least 45 minutes. Still, I somehow got the impression that their playing was a kind of minimal performance, a little too clever in the eyes of the coach. The snap was missing from the aggressiveness of the offensive game, such boredom and the desire to break Florida’s backbone. It felt like they wanted to keep this goal as a game.
Vegas didn’t get clean sheets for defending the equalizing goal either.
– The chasing team always gets that one or two places at the end and you should be alert with that. Now there was the wrong guy, or for Florida, the right guy, right in front of the goal, shoveling in the loose puck.
The top of Florida woke up at the last moment – where does Barkov go?
Criticism of Florida’s top players has grown steadily as the series has progressed, and it did so during the three-match series as well. About Aleksander Barkov and About Matthew Tkachuk since many Panthers’ key players have lost their effectiveness at the most important moment of the season. However, some of them woke up at the last moment – just when Vegas was about to take the series 3-0.
Tkachuk hit the equalizer and Carter Verhaeghe the winning goal. At the end of the match, the last mentioned put together the power 1+1.
Lehkonen still didn’t start to bounce straight.
– It’s worth visiting Bobrovski for a pat and just offer a proper dinner with side dishes and drinks. And one night is not enough. Yes, “Bob” here with his own saves made the guys look like geniuses, Lehkonen joked.
The hot question for Finns is, where does Aleksander Barkov, who is still in the finals without power, go?
– Coaching needs to find out what should be done with that chain. It doesn’t work at all now. One has to wonder whether (Anthony) Duclair and Verhaeghe are real players next to Barkov right now. The training also has to make the assigned docks constantly do work, raw, shitty work. You have to twist, turn and make rhythm changes all the time.