The Florida Panthers scratched and clawed their way to a win in Game 3 and are now sitting just 1 game back of the Vegas Golden Knights, who hold a 2-1 series lead. The series has been a hard-fought one thus far and has featured a number of highlight reel hits, including this one from Game 2 by Matthew Tkachuk on Jack Eichel.
The hit garnered a lot of attention and even Eichel himself chimed in after Game 2 to point out that it was a clean hit. Still, that didn't prevent Tkachuk from rubbing some salt in the wounds with his comments following Game 2.
Well, perhaps Tkachuk should have taken his own advice in Game 3, as he was caught in a similar position, with Keegan Kolesar absolutely flattening him with a monstrous open ice hit, which temporarily sent him into what many believed was concussion protocol.
Thankfully for Tkachuk and the Panthers, he was cleared to return to the game and scored perhaps the biggest goal of his career thus far to send the game to OT, where the Panthers would skate away with the victory, thanks to a Carter Verhaeghe OT winner.