Panthers Mikkola jolted Game 2 crowd with a mistake before his goal blasted life into it

Seconds after Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola — fortunately for him — failed to score on his own goalie, he scored a goal against Edmonton’s goalie that woke up a flat, quiet Amerant Bank Arena during the Panthers’ 4-1 Stanley Cup Final Game 2 win.

“Huge, huge goal, by him,” said Anton Lundell, who assisted on Mikkola’s goal. “He’s a guy we don’t talk about that much, but he’s been a huge player for our team. He blocks shots, he battles, he’s hard to play against. Happy to see him scoring goals as well.”

Nobody expects Mikkola to bring much offense to the party. Mikkola gets paid to bring defense, as reflected by his 40 points in 252 regular-season games, which works out to 13 points per 82-game season.

So, imagine the surprise when, along with helping hold Edmonton’s roadrunners to 19 total shots, Mikkola ended the night with more goals (one) this Stanley Cup Final than Edmonton net-fillers Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman combined (zero).

Why, it’s almost as big a surprise as Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky got from Mikkola on Monday before Mikkola tied the score.

With the Panthers down 1-0 in the second period despite generally having the better of the play, Mikkola picked off a dump-in and, under pressure from the Oilers’ Evander Kane, whipped a backhand pass to defense partner Brandon Montour. Well, he thought he did. What he actually did was whip a right circle backhander on goal that Bobrovsky saved as every Panther fans heart in the sellout crowd flatlined for a millisecond.

(Longtime Panthers fans might have been reminded of another Panthers Finn, Niklas Hagman, turned and fired what he intended to be a clear and wound up a shot from the left circle on Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo during a 2002 loss to Minnesota).

Montour picked the puck up on the boards, shoved it foward to Vladimir Tarasenko, who turned it to Lundell. Lundell drove the Edmonton defense back and dropped the pass for Mikkola. Mikkola one-timed a low blast past Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner to tie the gscore at 9:34 of the second period.

“I tried to do a D-to-D pass,” Mikkola said. “Bobby was awake, so, good for us. And, then the rest was nice.”

During the first two periods, the Panthers held Edmonton to seven shots on goal and just 19 for the game, though the Oilers did hit three posts and crossbars on the power play. It took a 4-on-4 situation, made for the swift Oilers to feast, for the Western Conference champs to get their lone goal of the series.

Connoisseurs of defense would be well fed by the Panthers’ last four periods, the third period of Game 1 and all three Monday.

“I think we were pretty good at the start,” Mikkola said of Monday’s Game 2. “Even if we were down one goal, everyone was calm and trusing the process. We were trusting that we were going to get chances. We were lucky we got one through — nice play by Lundy. Third period, we’ve been doing the same thing, just putting the puck deep and playing with all five guys all over.”