Stanley Cup Final Game 3 live blog: Golden Knights vs. Panthers

Welcome to Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers. NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price was high atop FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, for the sights, sounds and highlights from Florida's 3-2 in in overtime.

[RELATED: Complete Stanley Cup Final coverage]

Well, that's it. The Florida Panthers win 3-2 in overtime to cut Vegas' lead in the Stanley Cup Final to 2-1. The rats are flying here.

They get a goal with 2:13 left in regulation from Matthew Tkachuk and the winner in OT from Carter Verhaeghe. They are now 7-0 in overtime in the playoffs. And just like that, we are heading to a crucial Game 4 on Saturday and back to Las Vegas for at least a Game 5 on Tuesday.

I'm sure there will be a lot to digest in the postgame comments. Check out NHL.com for all our coverage.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Verhaeghe sends in wrister in OT

And we are going to overtime. But Vegas will be on the power play after Chandler Stephenson was tripped by Gustav Forsling with 12 seconds left in regulation.

Vegas already has two power-play goals, and a third here would put the series practically out of reach.

But the Panthers will get the 15-minute break to regroup.

The Golden Knights are outshooting the Panthers 25-22 and each goalie has been great.

The next goal could determine if this series is a long one or a short one.

Of course, who knows when the next goal could come. If case you have forgotten, the Panthers and Hurricanes played a 4OT game in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.

There are plenty of employers in the Fort Lauderdale area who may have a lot of people call in "sick" tomorrow.

Buckle up for OT.

Well wouldn't you know it, Matthew Tkachuk scores with 2:13 left in regulation and we are tied 2-2. The Panthers were pressing and Tkachuk found a loose puck on the doorstep and well, just like that, this place is alive and we could be looking at overtime.

Just unreal.

Tkachuk, who was knocked out of the game earlier and had been pretty quiet, gets perhaps the biggest goal of his life to this point and what was a few minutes away from a 3-0 Vegas lead is one Florida goal away from this being a series again.

This joint is going absolutely bananas.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Tkachuk sends in loose puck in 3rd

The fans are urging their team on with a "Let's Go Panthers" chant, and thanks to Sergei Bobrovsky save, it's still 2-1 with 4:17 left. They are doing the last ice cleaning of the night.

At some point in the past few minutes, Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour went to the room. We are not sure what happened.

Now the DJ is trying to get the fans fired up with Freddie Mercury "day o" deal from Live Aid.

But the only thing that will get these fans going now is a goal.

Well, Sir Charles is here. Yes, big hockey fan and NBA legend Charles Barkley was just shown on the big board. And while he got a pretty good ovation, Panthers fans have bigger things to worry about, like scoring a goal and trying to win this game. They trail 2-1 in the game and 2-0 in the series with under six minutes left. The season is clearly on the brink.

Make that 0-for-5 on the power play for the Panthers. If they end up losing this game, look no further than special teams for the reason. While Florida has yet to score a power play goal in this series in 12 tries, the Golden Knights have two power-play goals tonight.

We are under 10 minutes left and Panthers fans, who have yet to see their team win one game in the Stanley Cup Final (they are 0-6 entering tonight), are nervous.

But again, as we mentioned, this Florida team has been to the edge of the abyss before this postseason and are still here. Can the Panthers pull this one out? Stay tuned.

There is 13:38 left in the third period, and though the Panthers are still in it, the clock is ticking.

They got another huge save from Bobrovsky during the Vegas power play on a shot from Michael Amadio to keep it a 2-1 game.

But the crowd is getting restless, sensing that these next 13 minutes could determine if this series ends in 4-5 games or we are in for a longer haul.

The crowd just got a big lift when they showed Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa (I had to Google that) on the jumbotron.

Despite a rough night for their special teams, the Panthers trail by just one goal and as we have seen in these playoffs, they have a flair for the dramatic. And now they go on their fifth power play of the night, This is a huge two minutes in this game and series.

But Vegas is clearly not sitting on this lead; the Golden Knights are attacking the net, trying to get what would be a huge third goal.

The Panthers are now 0-for-11 on the power play in the Final, including 0-for-4 tonight.

It almost got worse when Chandler Stephenson nearly scored short-handed at the end of the Vegas kill.

And right after that, Vegas goes back on the power play with 37.8 seconds left after Anton Lundell takes a penalty for slashing.

They killed off that 37 seconds, but a Vegas power play that already struck twice tonight, will have 1:23 of clean ice to try to make it a 3-1 game.

It may fall on Bobrovsky to keep it a 2-1 game. He's made 18 saves, some on some Grade-A chances. If not for him, this game could be already over.

The fans here are getting restless, and though their anger is directed at the refs, it's the Panthers who are taking all these penalties. In fact, there have been 11 penalties called in this game -- six against Florida, five against Vegas. The problem is, Vegas has scored twice on the power play and Florida is 0-for-4.

Clearly, the penalty kill to start the third is huge for each team.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Bobrovsky stops Theodore and Howden

The Panthers are playing with fire, taking another penalty, this time Aleksander Barkov going off for interference with 5:47 left in the period.

And they get burned with emerging Conn Smythe Trophy favorite Jonathan Marchessault burying a one-timer on a gorgeous cross-ice pass from Jack Eichel.

It's Marchessault's 13th goal in his past 13 games.

Special teams are becoming a huge storyline in this game and series with the Golden Knights scoring twice on the power play and the Panthers now 0-for-10 in the series with the man-advantage.

They get another chance here after Alec Martinez took an interference call.

They just honored a 99-year-old woman who was an Army vet and this place gave her a big ovation. They really do honor the military here, and that's thanks to owner Vincent Viola's ties to West Point. Bill Douglas did a story on Viola and Vegas owner Bill Foley, who also went to West Point.

They also just played "Shout It Out Loud" by Kiss in the arena, in what I'm sure was a nod to Brian Compton and all the night editors in the NHL.com HQ.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Marchessault nets PPG for lead in 2nd

Make that 0-for-10 on the power play for the Panthers. The power play looked a bit better this time around, but they still couldn't get enough shots to the net or really make Adin Hill work for saves.

With each passing minute, the tension is rising here inside FLA Live Arena. It got real tense a few seconds ago when Brayden McNabb appeared to have a wide-open net, but Bobrovsky slid across and kept it a 1-1 game with 7:56 game.

He just robbed Brett Howden a few minutes later from almost the same spot with a sliding blocker save.

The Bobrovsky who played in the series against the Maple Leafs and Hurricanes appears to be back, giving Florida every chance to stay in this game.

They just did the t-shirt toss here a FLA Live Arena, with FLA cheerleaders doing the honors. Say what you want about the t-shirt toss, but it has stood the test of time. Let's face it, people love free stuff, and getting a nice t-shirt out of the deal is pretty good.

But of course the fans here would trade a win -- or even a Panthers goal -- for a t-shirt. It's 1-1 with about seven minutes left in the second period.

The Golden Knights look good on the power play, but they can't get one past Bobrovsky.

First, he made a nice pad save on Jonathan Marchessault and a few seconds later he swallowed up a wrist shot from Mark Stone.

But the Vegas power play looked sharp and it would behoove the Panthers to stay out of the box (that's my first behoove of the Final).

And now it's the Panthers going to the power play after Anthony Duclair is hooked by Brayden McNabb while driving to the net.

It's funny, when the refs call a penalty against the Panthers, the fans have some nasty things to say about them, but when they call a penalty against Vegas, they get applause.

We have exactly 12 minutes left in the second period and it's 1-1.

Well, Matthew Tkachuk is back. He missed the first few minutes of the second period, but he's now on the bench and now on the ice with 15:34 left in the second. The fans are chanting "Chucky, Chucky."

The DJ follows that up with "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc, another star of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."

Tkachuk came back to the bench right after the Panthers again failed to cash in on the power play. They are now 0-for-9 with the man-advantage in the Final.

The fans are starting to get a bit frustrated, as the pregame elation in FLA Live Arena has morphed into second-period angst.

But neither team is putting up much of an offensive threat so far. With 15:54 left in the second, the Golden Knights have seven shots on goal while the Panthers have five. The last shot for Vegas was a wide open look from Nicolas Hague, but Bobrovsky gloved it.

And now Vegas is going to the penalty after Aaron Ekblad takes a minor for holding.

Matthew Tkachuk has still not returned.

He left with 12:44 left in the first period after taking a hit from Keegan Kolesar. It's a huge blow for Florida, but they will have to carry on without him if they are going to get back into this series.

It's 1-1 starting the second period, but Florida goes immediately to the power play after William Carrier takes a tripping penalty. It's his third penalty of the game.

As if I didn't feel bad enough about eating the chicken fingers, I just got a good lesson about why I'm not in shape and others are. I was standing up the by the chicken fingers between periods and there was Mark Messier in the line for the food. I'm thinking if a physical specimen like him eats chicken fingers they can't be that bad. But he took one look at the chicken finger bin and instead loaded up his plate with broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and celery. No wonder he looks as good as he does at his age and I, well, you get the picture.

The first period is in the books, the game is tied 1-1 and the big drama here is whether Matthew Tkachuk will be back for Florida.

He left with 12:44 left in the first period after taking a hit from Keegan Kolesar and has not returned. Clearly, it would be a huge blow for Florida to lose Tkachuk for the rest of this game, or even the next game.

On the bright side for Florida, Sergei Bobrovsky appears to have gotten his game back. He made some big saves in the first period. There was nothing he could've done on the Mark Stone goal as it was a gorgeous deflection in front of the net.

The Stone goal and the questions about Tkachuk have taken some of the air out of this building, but when you consider how Vegas dominated Florida in Game 2, the Panthers can take some positives out of the first period.

We have a tie game with Vegas scoring a power-play goal with 3:57 left in the first period. It was a deflection in front by Mark Stone on a 4-on-3. We had 4-on-4 hockey for about 13 seconds after Vegas' William Carrier took two minutes for boarding and Radko Gudas took two minutes for cross-checking. But then Florida's Anthony Duclair tripped Zach Whitecloud to give Vegas the 4-on-3 advantage.

With about 20 seconds left in the 4-on-4, Florida nearly scored when Aleksander Barkov tried to set up Sam Reinhart in the slot, but the puck deflected away.

On a personal note, I'm very proud of myself, I just nailed the "finish the lyric" contest here in the arena on the Ariana Grande song "Break Free."

I know she is now a huge pop star, but I still say her best work came on "Victorious." We won't mention "Sam and Cat."

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Stone evens game with PPG in 1st period

Adin Hill kept this from becoming a 2-0 Panthers lead with a great blocker save on Anton Lundell in the slot. The Panthers have just four shots on goal through the first 12 minutes of the game, but three of them have been Grade-A scoring chances, with one of them going in.

The Golden Knights have just one shot on goal as Florida is doing a great job blocking shots and keep the puck away from Sergei Bobrovsky. But now Vegas is going to the power play after the Marc Staal took a tripping penalty he needed to take, because it prevented a 2-on-1 rush for Vegas.

But Vegas got one shot on goal on the power play from Jack Eichel as the Florida penalty kill was very aggressive and kept Vegas from getting set up or any clean looks. To this point, this is a much different Florida team than we saw in Game 2 in Las Vegas.

Of course, if they are going to be without Tkachuk for a stretch it may not matter.

There is a little over five minutes left in the first period and it's still 1-0 Panthers. The crowd is very excited, but you can almost sense the nervousness every time the Golden Knights come in over the blue line.

We have a developing situation. Matthew Tkachuk, after taking an open-ice hit from Keegan Kolesar, has gone to the Florida room and is not yet back.

The Panthers failed again to score on the power play and are 0-for-8 in the series. That has to change if they are going to have a chance to win this series.

But the big concern is Tkachuk right now. He stumbled a bit after the hit from Kolesar.

Stay tuned.

The Panthers are on the board first and this place is going nuts. After Sergei Bobrovsky made a great blocker save on Zach Whitecloud, the Panthers came down the other end and scored when new daddy Brandon Mountor took a feed from Matthew Tkachuk and beat Adin Hill over the shoulder.

It's 1-0 Florida and just like that, they good feeling has returned for Florida.

It will be interesting to see how Vegas responds.

Well, they didn't respond well, with Florida's Anthony Duclair getting a wide-open shot in the slot, but Hill made a huge save to keep it at 1-0.

And now Florida is going to the power play after a high stick call against William Carrier.

The penalty came after Keegan Kolesar absolutely crushed Tkachuk with a clean hit.

Big moment in this game early with Florida looking to take a two-goal lead.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Montour finishes Tkachuk's feed in 1st

"Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" star Dan Marino just took part in the pregame ceremony, banging the drum to start the "Let's Go Panthers" chant. Then, the PA system played the opening chords of "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. As if this crowd was already fired up, the former Miami Dolphins QB got the joint revved up.

Dan Rosen, a New York Football Giants fan, made some snarky remark about Marino's lack of a Vince Lombardi Trophy, but I don't think anyone here seems to care Marino never won the big one. He's a legend down here, and really the second-best NFL player ever from Pitt University (a guy wearing No. 99 on the Rams is No. 1).

If you have never been here, it's a pretty big arena (capacity close to 20,000) and it's packed to the rafters tonight for Game 3.

The anthems are over and it's go time.

Video: VGK@FLA, Gm3: Hall of Famer Marino gets fans ready

Walking around the press box, you can tell we are Florida because I've seen a few tropical-esque suits.

Gary Lawless, who works for the Vegas Golden Knights, had this really sweet light blue suit on. And then I just saw Kevin Weekes from NHL Network up here in a really sharp turquoise-like suit. Now, I'm no Mr. Blackwell when it comes to fashion, but I know I nice suit when I see one.

I actually busted out a new purple suit my wife picked out for me. Of course, with Henrik Lundqvist in the house with TNT, anyone will be second-best when it comes to the suit department.

The problem with wearing a flashy/memorable suit in a series like this is you really can only wear it once, but with tons of travel days and limited room in the suitcase, you really need to double up.

Tom Gulitti of NHL.com does an amazing job of packing two week's worth of clothes and suits into one smallish suitcase. It's really incredible.

My willpower is gone and I've gone in for the chicken fingers. I couldn't resist.

Though I said earlier I don't expect any lineup changes for the Golden Knights, NHL.com has a few things to note in your media scorebook: Mike Zeisberger has joined us here in Florida, along with our Panthers correspondent Alain Poupart. And our Golden Knights writer, Paul Delos Santos, is here with us as well.

We're just about ready to go.

Update from the press box: There are more chicken fingers, according to Amalie, but I'm holding off. The amazing Heather Carpenter at the NHL offices has arranged for postgame pizza in our workroom, so I'm going to see if I can hold out until then.

Be prepared to see a lot of white towels waving in the arena tonight. Every seat was covered this morning with a white towel that said, "the hunt resumes."

Though the Panthers are down 2-0, this is the first Stanley Cup Final game in this arena and the first one in a Florida city not called Tampa since 1996, so I expect the fans to be fired up.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice and defenseman Marc Staal said yesterday they expect it to be loud tonight.

And it should be. The Panthers fans have waited quite some time to see their team in person. The Panthers have played just two home game since May 10 (a 2-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in the second round). Remember, they swept the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, with Games 3 and 4 being played on May 22 and 24.

It will be interesting to see how the vibe in here compares to Vegas, which is not only very loud, but the energy in that place is off the charts. We're off to a good start with in-arena host Gabby Allen working to get the fans loud.

We may also see plenty of rats, but for the Panthers' sake, they hope they are not thrown onto the ice until the end of the game. In fact, they just showed a rat etiquette video in the arena and it was sponsored by -- wait for it -- a pest control company.

The players are on the ice for the first set of warmups. As we reported earlier, Radko Gudas is back for Florida after leaving Game 2 in the first period because of an injury.

There do not appear to be any changes for the Vegas lineup, and why would there be? They looked dominant in Game 2.

We have about 45 minutes until things get going here and there is already good news and bad news to report from the press box.

The good news -- at least for my waistline -- there are no M&Ms, and the big vat of chicken fingers was empty by the time I got to the press box. So again, good for my waistline, which took a beating last night at place called YOLO. More on that later.

I did try to guilt NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin into giving me one of her chicken fingers, but no dice.

More good news. They are playing songs here that I actually know -- 'Rhythm is Gonna Get Ya" by Miami Sound Machine, "Wanna Be Startin' Something" by Michael Jackson, "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic and "Sweet Child O' Mine" by GnR. Why couldn't they just call it 'Sweet Child OF Mine?" Either way, I may not have to go to the Shazam app all night.

But the bad news. There is a fountain soda machine up here, so my goal to cut down on the diet soda of my choice is in trouble.

OK, as for the game itself, the good news for the Panthers is they are home. The bad news, they are down 2-0 and have been outplayed in four of the six periods of this series.

To get all you need to know for Game 2, here are Dan Rosen's three keys for Game 3, including a video featuring Dan, Tracey Myers and Tom Gulitti. The video was put together by Ryan Bader and his hard-working crew from NHL Studios. There are countless people working behind the scenes here to not only make these games happen but to also provide fans with amazing content.

The Stanley Cup Final has shifted to South Florida, and despite the Panthers trailing 2-0 in the series, these fans are ready to go. Singer Flo Rida officially got the party started with a pregame concert - I did not see anyone with apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur (too hot for fur) -- but here's the lowdown (see what I did there?), the Panthers need to win this game. Forward Matthew Tkachuk even said so this morning in his pregame media availability.

It's been quite a week here in South Florida, not only with the Panthers in the Cup Final, but the Miami Heat are in the NBA Finals and now Lionel Messi, the most famous soccer player on the entire planet, is signing with Inter Miami of Major League Soccer. Also, the Marlins don't stink (they are much better than my floundering Mets) and the Dolphins look like a legit playoff team.

But this is about the Panthers, and they are feeling confident now that they are back home.

"We're really excited even with the circumstances. So, hold serve. They did what they needed to do. We need to win these games at home to hold serve," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said this morning. "The difference in all our perceptions of the game is so much until you go back and watch the game very closely the next day without the emotion. There's so much based on the fans. If you crack a bar and the home crowd is going to go berserk. You do it on the road and it's a whisper. It's an 'ooh.' You don't get any of that feedback, 'We're on them.' You feel like you're on them.

"So the home crowd, I'm more now than ever because after six weeks of the intensity of playoff hockey, neither team, and they'll both tell you they feel great but their bodies are dragging a little bit right now. Everybody, it's all adrenaline. So getting in front of the home crowd, we felt it very, very strongly as the playoffs went on, certainly went into Carolina, it felt like a phenomenal home building. It's a big building and they'll get going tonight."

Despite the talk of feeling good at home, the Panthers' record at FLA Live Arena this postseason in 4-3, but they did win their last two games here against the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final. The Golden Knights, on the other hand, are 6-2 on the road.

It should be a fun one.

We are about an hour from puck drop. I'll check back in a few.