Panthers take Game 1 of Stanley Cup final 3-0 over Oilers

Carter Verhaeghe beat Stuart Skinner on the first shot of the game and the Florida Panthers never trailed to win game one of the Stanley Cup final 3-0 over the Edmonton Oilers.

It was the fourth time in these playoffs that Skinner has allowed a goal on the first shot he’s faced.

The Panthers were able to slide one past the Oilers’ starter just under four minutes into the game as Verhaeghe scored off a cross-ice pass from Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. Verhaeghe became the first player to score on their team’s first shot in the Stanley Cup Final since Mike Fisher did so for the Ottawa Senators in 2007.

Evan Rodrigues doubled the lead early in the second after teammate Sam Bennett got the puck deep into the Oilers zone, then found Rodrigues in the slot.

Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen added an empty-netter with 4.4 seconds left in the game.

Edmonton outshot the Panthers by a two-to-one margin but Sergei Bobrovsky, who has allowed two goals or fewer in 10 of his last 11 games, turned aside all 33 shots for his third career shutout.

Game 2 of the series with the furthest distance between competing cities in NHL history goes Monday back at Amerant Arena at 8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. MT before the best-of-seven series shifts to the Alberta capital.

The winner of Game 1 in a best-of-seven final holds an all-time series record of 64-20. The last three Cup winners won the opener, but all three from 2018 to 2020 rallied from 1-0 deficits. 

The Oilers are in the final for the first time since 2006 and are looking for their first sip from hockey’s holy grail since winning the franchise’s fifth Cup in 1990. Edmonton are looking to become the first Canadian team to bring the Cup back to Canada since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens

The Panthers have never topped the NHL mountain after making the championship matchup in 1996 and 2023.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report