Marchand’s ‘unbelievable’ goal wows Panthers in Game 5 win of Cup Final

EDMONTON -- Matthew Tkachuk looked like he could barely breathe, the words coming out fast and furious and all at once.

“Oh my God,” he said, caught on his microphone on the bench. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” His body unable to contain its excitement, he put his arms around first Aleksander Barkov and then Dmitry Kulikov and Nate Schmidt.

It was an understandable reaction.

Not only had Brad Marchand just scored his second goal of the night, the one that pushed the Florida Panthers to a 3-0 lead in the third period of Game 5 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final, putting the Panthers one win from their second consecutive championship, but the goal itself was more than oh-my-God worthy.

“They’re both unbelievable, but that second one -- I don’t know how he did that,” Sam Bennett said. “I’m going to have to watch that clip a couple times and ask him to teach me something.”

It would stand, too, as the game-winner in the 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday, giving the Panthers the 3-2 series lead as they head back to Florida for Game 6 on Tuesday, a game in which the Stanley Cup will be at Amerant Bank Arena. It was his 16th career game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tying Jaromir Jagr and Patrick Marleau for the 10th most in NHL history.

“It started with a great stick at our line from [Eetu Luostarinen], and then I just tried to get inside and get a puck on net,” Marchand said. “I don’t really, to be honest, know what happened. I haven’t seen a replay. It just found its way in.”

At 5:02 of the third period, Anton Lundell lined up at the face-off dot in the defensive zone across from Leon Draisaitl. The Edmonton Oilers won the face-off, with Jake Walman collecting the puck just inside the blue line. But when he tried to pass it across to Evan Bouchard, it was knocked away by the blade of Luostarinen’s stick, allowing Marchand to grab it at center ice.

He started to the outside of Walman, as he came up the left side of the ice. But it was what he did when the pair got to the top of the left circle that generated comparisons to the magic often woven by Connor McDavid. He picked his stick up, shifting suddenly to the inside on Walman, slipping the puck under the defenseman’s stick with enough control to still backhand it through the legs of goalie Calvin Pickard.

“That was all ‘Marshy’s play,” Lundell said. “He took the puck and had a really highlight goal. Those are the goals you look at (on) YouTube when you were a kid and try to go out and practice yourself. But we’re all pretty amazed by him.”

The entire sequence had taken 10 seconds.

It was nothing short of brilliant.

Scoring two goals brought Marchand to six in the Stanley Cup Final, the second time he has scored at least five in a Cup Final, after he tallied seven points (five goals, two assists) for the Boston Bruins in 2011. He is the seventh player in NHL history to do so, but only the second in the expansion era (since 1967-68), joining Mario Lemieux, who had five in 1991 and 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He is also the seventh player in the expansion era to score at least 12 career goals in the Stanley Cup Final, having played in the Final in 2011, 2013, 2019 and now 2025.

“The thing about players when they come in, is you have a really strong idea [of who they are], you do all your pre-scouting, then you get on the ice with them in practice. That’s when you learn,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I had said this right from the start, clearly -- he’s closing in on 1,000 points (980) -- he’s got good hands.

“But I didn’t fully appreciate the small-area things that he can do, and that’s the most difficult to do. It’s not the rink-wide pass on the tape that you get excited about, but what he can do under duress in a small area is world class. It’s as good as I’ve seen.”

Marchand had scored his first goal of the game to kick off the scoring, at 9:12 of the first period, also off a face-off. This one, won by Lundell, sprung Marchand for a goal not entirely dissimilar to the second, victimizing Mattias Ekholm on his way to the goal.

Call it a practice run for No. 2.

The six goals Marchand has scored in the series now stands as the most by any one player in the Final since Esa Tikkanen in 1988. If he scores again in Game 6 (or Game 7), he could match the seven tallied by Wayne Gretzky in 1985.

Given the way he has performed in these playoffs -- and especially in the Cup Final -- it would hardly be surprising.

What was most clear was that Marchand, the oldest player on the Panthers at 37, the one with the most playoff experience (179 games, 43rd all-time) was the one who carried them offensively, whose legs had jump and whose nerves had long been shed.

“It’s just him,” Lundell said. “That’s how he is. He really has that passion. You see today. He decided he wants to go out there and be the difference-maker, and he did that. Unbelievable player and we’re all pretty amazed by his goals today.”