Lead up to Stanley Cup Final Game Three 9 June

June 9, 2025

The Stanley Cup Final shifts to Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla., for Game 3 tonight (8 p.m. ET on TNT, MAX, Sportsnet, TVA Sports) with the rematch between the Oilers and Panthers deadlocked 1-1. This will mark the fifth consecutive postseason that the state of Florida has hosted games in the Final.

* Some of the biggest names in this series have provided noteworthy performances through two games, including Sam Bennett, who is leading the entire playoffs and the Final in goals (tied), Sergei Bobrovsky, who has made 42 saves in each of the first two contests, as well as the duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who both posted multi-point performances in each game so far.

* An annual tradition will continue in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final with four of the top prospects for the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft attending the game: Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, James Hagens and Jake O’Brien.

STANLEY CUP FINAL RETURNS TO FLORIDA FOR GAME 3

After the 2025 Stanley Cup Final opened with a pair of thrilling games in Edmonton, with each team winning once in extra time, the series shifts to a familiar place with Game 3 set for Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, a venue that has hosted six Final contests since 2023. The Panthers own a 4-2 record on home ice in the Final since 2023, including a 3-1 mark against the Oilers in 2024 that culminated with a Game 7 victory and the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

* This will mark the fifth consecutive year the state of Florida hosts a Stanley Cup Final contest, with 12 total games across that span (FLA: 6 GP & TBL: 6 GP entering Game 3).

BIG NAMES HAVE DELIVERED ON THE BIG STAGE EARLY IN FINAL

Not only has the Stanley Cup Final provided edge-of-your-seat action, comebacks, overtime and memorable highlight-reel plays, but some of the biggest names in hockey have been stepping into the spotlight with noteworthy performances in the grandest of moments, including Florida’s Sam Bennett and Sergei Bobrovsky as well as Edmonton’s dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

* Bennett enters Game 3 tied for the series lead with three goals, while he paces all skaters in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 13 tallies overall. As the series shifts to Florida, the Panthers forward will look to extend his goal streak to four games and establish the longest run in franchise postseason history.

* The further into the season the Panthers go, the more productive Bennett becomes. He averages 0.49 points per game in the regular season, 0.73 P/GP in the playoffs and it increases even more when appearing in the Final (0.79 P/GP; 5-6—11 in 14 GP).

* Bobrovsky made 42 saves for the second straight contest in Game 2 to help the Panthers tie the series and can become the fourth goaltender on record with 40-plus stops in three consecutive playoffs games, following Craig Anderson (3 GP in 2010), Ron Tugnutt (3 GP in 2000) and Mike Palmateer (3 GP in 1983). No goaltender on record has posted 40-plus saves in three straight games during the Final.

* Bobrovsky owns a career .884 save percentage and a 3.38 goals against average through 14 games in the Stanley Cup Final, while those numbers dramatically improve to .929 and 1.84, respectively, when he plays on home ice.

* McDavid (0-5—5 in 2 GP) leads all skaters in points and assists during the 2025 Stanley Cup Final including wowing the home crowd with a highlight-reel helper in Game 2. The Oilers captain owns a career rate of 1.78 points per game in the Final (3-13—16 in 9 GP) – the fifth-highest mark in NHL history (min. 2 GP) behind Mario Lemieux (10-9—19 in 9 GP; 2.11 P/GP), Babe Dye (9-1—10 in 5 GP; 2.00 P/GP), Daniel Briere (3-9—12 in 6 GP; 2.00 P/GP) and Mark Stone (5-4—9 in 5 GP; 1.80 P/GP).

* Draisaitl did not register a goal in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final (0-3—3 in 7 GP), but the 2024-25 Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner has had a big impact through two games of this series. He scored the series-opening goal just 1:06 into Game 1 – the fastest opening goal of a Final in nearly 50 years – and completed that contest with his third overtime winner of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs to tie the NHL record for most in a single postseason.

* In Game 2, Draisaitl capped off the highest-scoring first period in a Stanley Cup Final game since 2016 with his 10th goal of the postseason – the third time in his career he has hit double digits in a single postseason. The only other active player to reach 10 postseason goals three times is Evgeni Malkin (also 3x).

* Draisaitl’s next point will mark his third career 30-point postseason. The only players in NHL history to accumulate 30 points in a single playoff year three or more times are Wayne Gretzky (6x), Mark Messier (3x) and McDavid (3x including 2025).

TOP PROSPECTS SET FOR ANNUAL VISIT TO FINAL

A tradition every year at the Final, and with the 2025 NHL Scouting Combine presented by Fanatics in the rearview mirror, the next stop for the top four ranked North American Skaters for the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft is a trip to Sunrise, Florida for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart, Leon Draisaitl and Sam Bennett, the top four picks in the 2014 NHL Draft, reminisced about a similar experience when they attended the 2014 Staney Cup Final between the Kings and Rangers prior to being selected into the NHL.

* Matthew Schaefer (Erie, OHL), Michael Misa (Saginaw, OHL), James Hagens (Boston College, NCAA) and Jake O’Brien (Brantford, OHL), ranked Nos. 1-4 on NHL Central Scouting’s Final Rankings, respectively, will be in attendance for Monday’s game to meet some of the players, the media and soak in the atmosphere.

* Schaefer, a defenseman and the top-ranked North American skater, had a standout start to the season but missed a major portion of the 2024-25 campaign after being sidelined by an injury sustained at the 2025 World Junior Championship. He can become the first Ontario Hockey League skater to be selected first overall since Oilers forward Connor McDavid – who also played for Erie – in 2015 and the first OHL defenseman taken with the top spot since Panthers defenseman Ekblad in 2014. Click here to read more about how Schaefer is inspired by the memory of his late mother.

* A trio of dynamic forwards will join Schaefer, including Misa, who also has something in common with McDavid and Ekblad as a player who received exceptional player status to enter major junior hockey a year early. Misa is coming off a season in which he won the OHL scoring race by a 10-point margin (62-72—134 in 65 GP), recording the league’s highest single-season point total since 2006-07 (Patrick Kane had 145 points that year, while John Tavares ranked second with 134).

* Hagens, a forward at Boston College, grew up an Islanders fan as a native of Hauppauge, New York, less than 40 miles from UBS Arena. The Islanders hold the top pick in this year’s Draft. He concluded the 2024-25 season fourth in points among NCAA freshmen (11-26—37 in 37 GP) and helped Team USA earn gold at the 2025 World Junior Championship. Should Hagens be selected among the top-five picks, it would mark the first time in NHL Draft history that a top-five selection has come out of U.S. college hockey for three consecutive years.

* O’Brien finished the 2024-25 campaign tied for seventh in assists and points across the OHL (32-66—98 in 66 GP) while leading the league with 41 power-play assists. He was on the ice at hockey school as young as three years of age – his mother, Amy Turek, represented the Canadian National Team in both ice and in-line hockey, played in the National Women’s Hockey League and ran summer hockey camps where Jake got his start as the youngest player on the ice.

* All four players were featured with notes in the recently released #NHLStats Pack: Looking Ahead to the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft.