‘Unreal’ Bobrovsky shutout leads Panthers to Game 1 win over Oilers in Stanley Cup Final

The Florida Panthers as a team were far from their best on Saturday as they began the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers.

Lucky for them, Sergei Bobrovsky put together the latest signature moment of his career.

The Panthers’ star goaltender and Vezina Trophy finalist put up arguably his best performance of the playoffs, stopping all 32 shots he faced in a 3-0 win in Game 1 at Amerant Bank Arena for his second shutout of these Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s the first shutout in Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final since Roberto Luongo turned aside all 36 shots he faced in the 2011 Cup Final-opener for the Vancouver Canucks against the Boston Bruins.

“He’s just been unreal,” star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “His preparation is incredible. His work ethic, his character, it’s everything you want in a teammate, especially a goalie. He has everything.”

The Panthers needed Bobrovsky to be unreal considering how the game unfolded. The Oilers, led offensively by stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and followed by oodles of depth beyond them, attacked in waves on Saturday. The final tally was a 70-42 edge in shot attempts for the Oilers, including 32 scoring chances and 18 high-danger chances for Edmonton.

But Bobrovsky stood tall in every situation, most notably stopping 13 high-danger shots on goal and stopping all six shots on Edmonton’s three power-play opportunities, to will Florida to the win.

Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Eetu Luostarinen scored for Florida — one goal per period — to give Bobrovsky all the cushion he needed.

“They’re a good offensive team, and I thought we protected inside ice,” Bobrovsky said. “It was a good challenge. It was a good game.”

Now, Bobrovsky has been stellar for the Panthers throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs. He’s now 13-5 with a 2.08 goals against average.

But for the most part, he hasn’t been particularly challenged in most games this postseason, with the Panthers’ defense doing a stellar job in front of him in limiting shots on goal and thus having Bobrovsky go through his share of extended lulls during games.

Saturday marked just the fourth time in 18 playoff games the Panthers have surrendered at least 30 shots on goal.

“That’s the game that over time most goaltenders are used to — the higher volume, more consistency in the [shots faced],” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It was certainly that through the first two [periods]. But that’s truly the advantage for us of having a guy that’s seen it all at this point in his career. He’s had quiet times. He’s had very, very busy nights. He’s certainly capable of operating at a high level in both.”

He has also gotten the second billing among netminders up to this point in Florida’s playoff run.

In the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the focus was on if the Panthers could get past Andrei Vasilevskiy after he shut them down in both the 2021 and 2022 playoffs. Florida took care of that.

In Round 2, it was figuring out the Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, who entered that series with a .955 save percentage in the playoffs. The Panthers took care of business there.

And then in the Eastern Conference final, it was the New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin getting all the attention. Florida once again was the victor.

Now, in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s 35-year-old and 14-year NHL veteran Bobrovsky against 25-year-old Stuart Skinner.

Bobrovsky is the clear-cut name in net in the biggest series of the season.

And Saturday served as the biggest reminder of just how good Bobrovsky can be in the playoffs.

Bobrovsky made five big saves in the first period alone when Edmonton outshot Florida 12-4.

It began when he turned aside a McDavid wrist shot from up close after the star center got behind Florida’s defense 5:49 into regulation. A little less than four minutes later, he stopped a Draisaitl backhander after a McDavid blocked shot landed on Draisaitl’s stick in the left circle. During the final 10 minutes of the frame, Bobrovsky denied breakaways from both Adam Henrique and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins before ending the frame by stopping a Mattias Ekholm slap shot with traffic in front of the net.

“You expect that,” Bobrovsky said. “They’ve got lots of speed and lots of skill.”

It was an effort of heroics to keep the Panthers’ early 1-0 lead intact after Verhaeghe opened scoring with a wrist shot from up close on a pass from Aleksander Barkov. The goal was Verhaeghe’s 10th of the playoffs, making him the third player in Panthers history history to record double-digit goals in a single postseason, joining Matthew Tkachuk (11 in 2023) and Dave Lowry (10 in 1996).

Florida doubled its lead early in the second period on an Evan Rodrigues snap shot from the slot after Sam Bennett did the dirty work on the boards to free up the puck.

Bobrovsky’s dominance then continued in the second when he denied another six high-danger shots. The closest Edmonton came to scoring was when Connor Brown tried to get a loose puck past Sergei Bobrovsky after Bobrovsky had stopped a Mattias Janmark breakaway midway through the frame after the referees already blew the play dead. A scrum ensued afterward and four players — Edmonton’s Brown and Mattias Janmark, Florida’s Kevin Stenlund and Oliver Ekman-Larsson — were given roughing penalties.

And in the third, Bobrovsky sealed the game by going a perfect 7 for 7 as Florida’s defense tightened up down the stretch before Luostareinen capped scoring with an empty-net goal with 4.4 seconds left.

“They played well,” Tkachuk said. “We played well enough to win.”

But at this stage, a win is a win.

Florida needs just three more.

“It’s a big win,” Bobrovsky said. “But it’s a long series. We’re going to reset, refocus and get ready for the next one.”