Another one. And another one. And another one. Game 3 was a non-stop penalty killing affair that ultimately led to the Oilers falling 2-1 in the series.

Florida started scoring in the night early. Not even a minute into the game the Panthers won an offensive faceoff draw and wrapped around the net. Anton Lundell threw a centering pass and the puck took a weird bounce in front of Skinner – as the Oilers scrambled to reform their defensive line Kasperi Kapanen lost Brad Marchand who took advantage of the open ice to give Florida the lead.

The Oilers went to the powerplay after Anton Lundell tripped Leon Draisaitl, but the Panthers were able to kill it off thanks to a heroic save from Sergei Bobrovsky. With nine seconds left Evander Kane was thrown into the box for a weak crosscheck. The Oilers killed it off, but on his next shift back, Evander Kane took a high sticking penalty and went returned to the sin bin. The Oilers killed the penalty, only to again go back to the penalty kill after taking a too many men bench minor. It didn’t last long. Aaron Ekblad tripped Darnell Nurse behind the play to even up the ice. The Panthers killed off their penalty and the game finally went back to 5-on-5…

…Only for Sam Bennett to high stick Evan Bouchard immediately after a commercial break. The Panthers killed it off, and then Viktor Arvidsson when to the box due to goaltender interference. Unfortunately, the Oilers PK broke first – Carter Verhaeghe found space in the slot and fired a shot over Skinner’s stick shoulder to extend Florida’s lead to two.

Edmonton started the second period on the odd-man advantage due to a scrum at the end of the first, and the Oilers would finally capitalize. At first it seemed like the Panthers would kill it with ease – but Bouchard sent a floater to the net and Corey Perry quickly attacked the rebound and scored Edmonton’s first of the night.

Florida retaliated quickly; Klingberg was sandwiched on the boards between a Panther and a referee that didn’t move out of the way – the Panthers scooped up the puck and Reinhart beat Skinner again.

Things only got worse when Sam Bennett interfered Vasily Podkolzin with no call. Florida gained control of the puck on the blue line and Sam Bennett barreled down on a breakaway to beat Skinner clean and give the Panthers their fourth goal of the night.

The Oilers fought back but couldn’t convert for the rest of the second, and Nurse found himself in the penalty box after cross-checking Anton Lundell, who flopped to sell the call. Edmonton would kill it off to start the third period, but down three goals with eighteen minutes to play – there wasn’t much to celebrate.

Stuart Skinner took a delay of game penalty to make sure that Game 3 was unsalvageable. The Panthers scored, again, and the score was 5-1.

If it wasn’t clear that the refs completely lost control of the game , it was evidently clear when the ice broke out into an MMA match with ten minutes left to play. More penalties called, penalties turned into ejections – match penalties started getting called.

It would be so nice to see a normally officiated game when the Florida Panthers are playing.

Tonight was very much the Oilers’ worst game of the entire post-season. They never played their own game and spent an entire period killing off dumb penalties that shouldn’t have happened. After losing Game 2, which should have gone Edmonton’s way, the Oilers are now down 2-1 in the Stanley Cup final in tragic fashion. Even when the Oilers weren’t on the penalty kill, they struggled to generate any sort of offence – shots were slow, passes were fumbled, rebounds were a non-factor.

Final score, 6-1. 85 penalty minutes given to the Oilers, and 55 minutes given to Florida.

All around just an awful game. Throw out the tapes and forget about it, and make sure to show up on puck drop first thing Thursday night, because there aren’t going to be too many more chances this June.