Stanley Cup Final: Carter Verhaeghe's OT winner secures Panthers' comeback Game 3 win
Carter Verhaeghe scored just over four minutes into the extra frame to give the Panthers their first ever win in the Stanley Cup Final.
Carter Verhaeghe scored the overtime winner for the Florida Panthers, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 3.
Verhaeghe fired a wrist shot through traffic, beating Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill four minutes and 27 seconds into the extra frame.
Panthers superstar Matthew Tkachuk scored the game-tying goal with two minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the third period. Verhaeghe wired a slap shot from the top of the circle and the rebound trickled on Tkachuk’s stick, who made no mistake from in-close with Hill out of position. Tkachuk missed a large segment of the first period after taking a shoulder-to-shoulder hit from Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar.
Brandon Montour opened the scoring, notching his seventh goal of the postseason, his first since the opening game of his team’s second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Montour roofed a wrist shot through traffic over the shoulder of Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill for the 1-0 lead, but it was short-lived.
Golden Knights captain Mark Stone tied the game late in the first period on the man advantage. Stone stood alone in front of the net as the Panthers used a triangle penalty kill defense and he deflected a Jonathan Marchessault shot from the point cleanly for his team’s first goal. Stone, who was the hero in Game 1, drew a secondary assist on Marchessault’s goal.
Marchessault scored for the fourth consecutive game, receiving a beautiful saucer pass from Jack Eichel and deposited it past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with just over five minutes remaining in the second period
Game 4 resumes Saturday where the Panthers look to tie the series on home ice.
