Winners and Losers From Panthers-Oilers Game 3 2025 Stanley Cup Final

The defending champions are playing like, well...defending champions.

The Florida Panthers scored in the opening minute, took a two-goal lead to the first intermission and were in control across nearly every subsequent sequence in a dominant 6-1 win over Edmonton in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The victory gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead in the series and a chance to take full command when the teams return to Amerant Bank Arena for Game 4 on Thursday.

It was the first 60-minute contest after the opening contests had each gone to extra time, with the Oilers winning the opener last Wednesday before Florida evened things up with a double-OT win on Friday.

The B/R hockey team was in the building on Monday and came up with a definitive list of the game's winners and losers. Please take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.

Winner: Bill Zito

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Perhaps it was fitting that news of the Brad Marchand trade to Florida came just ahead of the 4 p.m. ET wire on deadline day in March.

Because no deal had nearly the same dramatic impact on the acquiring team as GM Bill Zito's master stroke that brought the 37-year-old to the defending champs.

Marchand played just 10 games and had a pedestrian four points in his new sweater down the stretch in the regular season, but he revved things up once the bright lights went on in April.

The polarizing former Bruins captain had 14 points across Florida's early-round defeats of Tampa Bay, Toronto and Carolina and has shone even brighter since, scoring a goal in Game 1 against Edmonton, two more in Game 2 including the game-winner in double OT, and getting the Panthers on the board just 56 seconds into Game 3.

Whether or not he chooses to stay in South Florida as unrestricted free agency approaches this summer, there will be zero debate that the conditional draft pick Zito sent to Boston was worth the cost if Florida repeats.

Loser: Oilers' Puck-Handling and Composure

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It wasn't a great night for Edmonton's worst game of the postseason.

The team that was fundamentally sound and territorially sturdy in dominating Vegas and Dallas was nowhere to be found in its series debut in Sunrise, combining grenade-like puck-handling with myriad mental mistakes.

Backbreaking second-period goals by Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett resulted from egregious mistakes by John Klingberg and Vasily Podkolzin, respectively, allowing the Panthers to stretch their lead to three by the game's midway point.

And lest anyone forget, it had been a goalie interference penalty against Viktor Arvidsson late in the first that set up the power play—Florida's fourth of the opening period—cashed in by Carter Verhaeghe for a 2-0 lead at 17:45.

Overall, Edmonton had 12 giveaways to the home team's seven, and its series of undisciplined penalties through two periods, including two cross checks, a high stick, a delay of game and a bench minor for too many men (in addition to the goalie interference) scuttled any chance at a third straight rally to force overtime.

Winner: Playoff 'Bob'

He wasn't called upon to make the sorts of highlight-reel saves of which he's capable, but Florida's Game 3 win was certainly locked up—if not prompted—by the reliable playoff goaltending of veteran Sergei Bobrovsky.

The 36-year-old stopped all but one of 33 Edmonton shots in Florida's win, allowing two or fewer goals for the 12th time in 20 starts this spring.

The Russian had been dinged for eight goals across the opening two games against the Oilers but was only beaten on Monday by Corey Perry on a second-period power play.

The reliable goaltending and suffocating defensive play were reminiscent of the opening salvo of last year's title series, in which Bobrovsky stopped 32 shots in a 3-0 victory. He allowed just one goal on Edmonton's 51 shots in Games 1 and 2 of the 2024 Final at Amerant Bank Arena.

Losers: 97 and 29

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Given the factors already mentioned, even a magical Monday night from Edmonton superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl might not have made a difference.

But it surely didn't help that Nos. 97 and 29 were more invisible than impactful.

Neither of the former MVPs and scoring champions got it done for the Oilers in Game 3, combining for two shots (both from McDavid), three hits and precious little else while posting a composite minus-3 rating in 45 shifts and 41:18 of ice time.

It was a significant departure from their performances through the Oilers' first 18 playoff games, in which they produced 16 goals and 60 points and took spots one and two among all playoff scorers. They fared far better on home ice at Rogers Place in Games 1 and 2 with three goals and nine points.

Loser: Evander Kane

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On a good night, Evander Kane is an effective forward who creates headaches for opponents with a blend of aggression, puck skill and scoring touch.

Monday was not one of those nights.

Agitated by the Panthers and their goalmouth antics in the opening two games, the 33-year-old's discipline needle plunged irretrievably into the red as he racked up 16 minutes of penalties alongside a minus-2 in an ugly performance.

It wasn't a good sign that Kane took two minor penalties—one for cross-checking and another for high-sticking—in the game's opening eight minutes, and he was done for the night just past the midway point of the third, when a slash on Florida's Carter Verhaeghe also yielded a misconduct and an early trip to the showers.

Kane, who didn't play all season while rehabbing from multiple injuries, had 11 points in 15 games through Edmonton's early defeats of Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas while spending just 12 minutes in the penalty box. He was a plus-2 in the Oilers' Game 1 win against Florida and scored in Game 2 while logging better than 46 minutes of combined ice time.