‘A UFC fight’: Tensions rise in Stanley Cup Final as the Panthers get the upper hand on the Oilers

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Things got chippy in the Stanley Cup Final late in Game 3 when the Florida Panthers were well on their way to blowing out the Edmonton Oilers.

Brawls ensued, Darnell Nurse and Jonah Gadjovich dropped the gloves, and eight guys got sent to the showers early with misconduct penalties.

"When we get into garbage time, those things happen, and I don't mind when those things happen," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. "It's what good teams do: fight your way out of the rink. I don't mind that in garbage time."

Long before garbage time, Florida took it to Edmonton, with the defending champions dictating their style of play and knocking their opponents off kilter to take a 2-1 series lead with a 6-1 laugher. If more of that continues in Game 4 on Thursday night, it’s advantage Panthers because they thrive on making other teams feel uncomfortable.

"We played our game, our style, stuck up for each other when we needed to," Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. "If you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check - a spear, a slash, whatever the case is, you've got to take it.”

It should not be surprising that tensions boiled over given the lopsided score in the 10th game in the Cup final between these two teams over the past year. The Oilers and Panthers have grown a healthy distaste for each other with all that familiarity.

With that comes plenty of hits, shoves and jabs that lead to slashes, punches and gear strewn all over the ice. The 140 combined penalty minutes in Game 3 were the most in a final since Game 4 between Montreal and Calgary in 1986.

"The game's over with 11 minutes left," Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said Tuesday after practice. "Then all hell breaks loose. It's a UFC fight."

The penalties that mattered to the result came early. The Oilers were not shy about criticizing the officiating and the Panthers for allegedly influencing it. Goaltender Stuart Skinner said, "Some guys are flaking and going down trying to cause penalties,” and Evander Kane questioned some of the calls.

“There seems to be a little bit more attention on our group,” said Kane, who took two minor penalties in the first period alone. "They seem to get away with it more than we do. It's tough to find the line.”

Toeing that line is what the Panthers do best, and it is a recipe that has them in the final for a third consecutive year under coach Paul Maurice, who credited Tkachuk for having "a little bit more impact on the tenacity of the team than the guy who wears a suit behind the bench and never takes a shift."

Florida’s roster is full of truculence with talent to match. Sam Bennett delivered a big, open-ice hit that led to his breakaway and playoff-leading 14th goal, and finishing checks on John Klingberg has hampered the veteran defenseman’s play in the series compared to the first three rounds.

"That's part of their DNA, that’s what they do," Draisaitl said. "It's an emotional time. It's two teams that want to win, two teams of doing it their own way, but I don't think anybody is going crazy here. They're good at what they do."

Maurice did not buy into the idea that Game 3 was the Panthers showing what they can do at their best. The opener went to overtime and Florida needed double OT to win Game 2.

"I think the first two games are indicative of what Game 4 is going to look like,” Maurice said. “We're not going to look at (Game 3) and say, 'That's the way it should look if we play our game.'”

The Oilers certainly look at it as the opposite, discombobulated and nothing resembling the group that had gone 12-2 since a couple of losses to open the first round. They’ve dropped two in a row for the first time since.

"We just got to play our game," Nurse said. "We got guys that can do all that kind of stuff. But is that our game? So I think we just got to stick to play the way that we play. We're such a good hockey team when we just play hockey, and we just got to do that."