The Florida Panthers are now just two wins away from their first Stanley Cup after crushing the Edmonton Oilers 6-1 in Game 3, but the lopsided penalty calls have left the Oilers frustrated.
“They seem to get away with it more than we do,” Oilers forward Evander Kane said after the game. “They’re doing just as much stuff as we are. There seems to be a little bit more attention on our group.”
The numbers back up Kane’s complaint. Edmonton got hit with 21 penalties totaling 85 minutes, while Florida only received 14 penalties for 55 minutes.
It made a huge difference on the scoreboard too. The Panthers cashed in with three power-play goals.
Things really got ugly in the third period. A line brawl broke out midway through, leading to misconduct penalties for Sam Bennett, Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse. Kane later got tossed after slashing Carter Verhaeghe.
But Kane doesn’t think Florida got under their skin.
“No, I don’t think so. The game obviously got out of hand at the end there,” he said. “That stuff is going to happen. You look at some of the calls and whatnot, obviously some of them are frustrating.”
Here’s what’s interesting: Florida actually took more penalties than Edmonton in each of the first two games of the series.
The Panthers have now won two straight to grab a 2-1 series lead. Brad Marchand, who played hero with two goals in Game 2’s overtime win, got things started again by scoring first in Game 3.
Florida will try to take a commanding 3-1 lead when they host Game 4 on Thursday. If the bad blood from Game 3 carries over, we might be in for another intense battle.
