Brad Marchand slipped a puck under Stuart Skinner’s pad on his own rebound.
That effort off the stick of the Florida Panthers winger dribbled through Edmonton’s crease and touched the post before being cleared to safety.
That agonizingly close call in Friday’s first additional time period got here after Marchand connected on a short-handed breakaway within the second period.
The 37-year-old didn’t miss on his next probability.
Marchand scored on one other breakaway — this time in double OT — because the Panthers beat the Oilers 5-4 to even the Stanley Cup final 1-1.
Florida Panthers winger Brad Marchand (63) celebrates his game-winning goal against the Oilers with Jesper Boqvist (70) in the course of the second additional time period in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton on Friday, June 6, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
“Pure excitement and adrenalin for the entire group,” he said in describing the moment before getting mobbed by teammates inside a stunned Rogers Place. “All of us knew we were one shot away … luckily it went our way.”
Florida, which beat Edmonton in seven games in last 12 months’s final for the franchise’s first title, recovered after Corey Perry tied the sport with 17.8 seconds left in regulation.
“We’ve all the time had a really calm team,” Marchand said. “You draw out of your experiences. We do a extremely good job of specializing in the moment.”
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His ninth and tenth goals all-time in Cup final play gave him the lead amongst energetic players. Marchand’s performance got here exactly 14 years after he scored short-handed within the 2011 final against the Vancouver Canucks.
Roberto Luongo — the opposing netminder on the time and now special adviser for the Panthers — posted to X, the social media platform formerly often known as Twitter: “Favourite player of all time.”
“Lu is awesome,” said the Halifax product. “He’s an incredible person. Comfortable to be on the team.”
Marchand was acquired from the Bruins, who were eliminated by the Panthers from the 2023 and 2024 playoffs, on the trade deadline buzzer back in March.
The fit has been seamless for a player that has made loads of enemies throughout his profession.
“Brad’s an honest man,” said Florida head coach Paul Maurice, whose group dropped the series opener to Edmonton 4-3 in OT. “He loves the sport. He loves the people around him. He’s very open, very gregarious. He (was) completely accepted. An incredibly positive human being. He’s up and down our bench on a regular basis just pumping tires, stays within the fight. He’s going to be the identical way at breakfast (Saturday) morning. He’s just going to be jacked, high-fiving everybody on the table.”
“He enjoys the moment,” Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues added. “He doesn’t draw back from it.”
Marchand’s parents were within the stands Wednesday, along with his mother was caught on camera celebrating her son’s heroics.
He was asked post-game to explain Lynn Marchand as a hockey mom.
“She is one which it’s essential to put a muzzle on,” he said to laughter from reporters. “She gets pretty amped up on the games. They’ve all the time been so supportive. I don’t think any player on this league could say that their parents are usually not the most important reason why we’re here.”
Marchand, who won the Cup in 2011 and likewise played within the 2013 and 2019 finals, has shown no signs of slowing down at age 37 in his sixteenth NHL season.
“He could play till he’s 47 the way in which he’s going,” Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “Unreal player, unreal competitor.”
Marchand’s fifth profession playoff OT goal tied Perry, Patrick Kane and Panthers teammate Carter Verhaeghe for essentially the most amongst energetic players. The veteran forward also became the seventh player in NHL history to succeed in that number.
“He just finds a way,” said Florida defenceman Nate Schmidt, who had a few run-ins with Marchand earlier this season when he was still captaining Boston. “I don’t think it gets too big for him. He was considered one of our most vocal guys throughout the third and the intermissions. It doesn’t seem to be he ever gets too riled about it, which is something you would like.
“He’s a veteran presence guy that’s got a hoop. We’re really lucky to have him.”
Maurice called Marchand “a novel human” that has found a brand new home because the best-of-seven series now shifts to South Florida.
“Within the northern parlance,” said the coach, “he’s a beauty.”
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