Stanley Cup Final Game Two: That's Hockey, Baby!

To borrow a line from two-time WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, "God help me, I love this stuff!"

The 2025 Stanley Cup Final, a rematch of last year's Final, began with an overtime thriller that saw the Edmonton Oilers come back from down 3-1 to win it in overtime. Leon Draisaitl won it with 31 seconds left in the extra frame, allowing the Oilers to draw first blood in this year's Final. It was an absolutely amazing game, but even with how awesome hockey is, we would certainly not get this again, would we?

About that.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada played host to Game Two, and it was must-win for the defending champion Florida Panthers. A 2-0 deficit in the Final would be certain death for the Panthers; teams who go up 2-0 in the SCF win it 91% of the time. Even with the scene shifting to Sunrise after this, Florida can't go home down 2-0. On the flipside, the Oilers looking to take a commanding 2-0 lead would really help their chances of winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in this current Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl era.

Stuart Skinner vs Sergei Bobrovsky, and this was an absolute hardship for both goalies. First goal wasn't as early as Game One, but still early enough. An early penalty 37 seconds in leads to a goal 127 seconds in. Sam Bennett makes it 1-0, and for the first time in ten games, the Oilers have to start late. Oilers received a PP later, but that turned into 4-on-4 later on. All penalties killed off, and much later, at 7:39, Evander Kane ties it up. One hundred seconds later, Evan Bouchard gives Edmonton the lead, but barely over two minutes later, it's tied again. Seth Jones knots it up, and the parade of penalties continues. There were matching minors prior to that goal, but right after Jones' goal, three penalties were handed out. Two went to Florida, one to Edmonton, resulting in an Oilers PP, and it's Leon Draisaitl because of course it is. That goal came sixty seconds after Jones' goal.

So after 20 minutes, the shots were 14-11 Oilers, Panthers committed six penalties to the Oilers' five, and that includes two calls against Tkachuk. Evan Bouchard had a goal in two helpers in that frame alone, and the score was 3-2 Oilers. WOW! The last penalty of that frame was committed with 1:19 left, and the rest of it was killed off to kick off the second, which was much quieter. Score was holding up until Dmitry Kulikov tied it at 8:23. Oilers had a PP, but Brad Marchand breaks away and scores shorthanded. Rest of the PP is knocked off, and after 40 minutes, the Panthers led 4-3.

Third period was back and forth; the Panthers really pressed, but the Oilers pressed just a bit more. The score was holding up, but I sensed something from the Oilers, which tells me that this is a different Oilers team compared to past years. Skinner was pulled for the extra attacker, a series of icing calls followed, but the Oilers continued to really try to get that equalizer. Finally... they get it! And it's Corey Perry. Corey Perry. He's not a goal scorer. He's not. He's an agitator, he's a fighter, he's a master of the dirty hit, but he's been finding the net quite a bit lately, and at the right time. The goal came with 17.8 seconds left, the latest game-tying goal in SCF history!

So we have overtime once again! The sixth time that the first two games of the SCF need OT, and the first time since the Kings/Rangers Final in 2014. In Game One, the OT nearly went the whole period. I had a belief that this OT would be hella short. It almost was at times. Florida pressed very early. We also saw a breakaway chance from Sam Reinhart. Stopped! Skinner had some wild saves, as did Bobrovsky. This time, we would not be denied, we got double overtime! The first double OT SCF game since Game Five in the 2020 bubble, which was also in Edmonton. BTW, the GWG scorer in that game? Corey Perry. The Panthers led in shots for the whole way, though the Oilers did have their chances. After Bobrovsky had a key stop, the puck ended up with Marchand, who broke away on his own and shot it right through Skinner's legs and in! Game over!

The Florida Panthers won Game Two, 5-4, in double overtime! As amazingly epic as Game One was, Game Two topped it. Seriously, both Finals in the NBA and NHL are doing their best to really show out this year. I seriously thought Brad Marchand was a bit on the burned out side. I figured, "Well, he's with the Panthers. He's in the Final, it's a feel good story, he's there for the feels." He has three goals so far in the Final: a PPG, a shortie, and an OT winner on a breakaway. The Rat's still got it. Sam Bennett has three goals in the Final. Tkachuk, Barkov, Reinhart: no goals. You know who else doesn't have a goal yet in this year's Final? Connor McDavid. But he has five helpers, so that hasn't been a detriment.

Regarding shots on goal, after the Oilers led 14-11 in the first, it was 14-9 Panthers in the second, 9-5 Oilers in the third, 13-8 Oilers in the first overtime, and 4-1 Panthers in the second overtime. Total shots: 46 for the Oilers, 42 for the Panthers. For the first time since I started recapping Cup Finals on Vocal, we have a 1-1 Final after two games. This is the 31st best-of-seven Cup Final to be 1-1 after two games. Out of the previous 30 occurrences, the winner of Game Three goes on to win the series 23 times (76.7%). It gets better for road teams. Road teams who win Game 3 in a 1-1 Cup Final: undefeated. 13 occurrences--all of them hoisted Lord Stanley. Oilers have a chance to really be in the driver's seat, but they'll now have to do it on the road, where the Panthers look to get back in this series.

Game Three is Monday in Sunrise.

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