SUNRISE, Fla. – Florida Panthers fans are set to fill up the Amerant Bank Arena on Friday night in Sunrise. The tickets for the game watch party available at noon were as low as $44.
Paul Maurice was preparing the players to follow Matthew Tkachuk’s lead in hopes of winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history against the Edmonton Oilers.
“We are very comfortable right now, we are excited,” Tkachuk said during a news conference. “We know it is going to be a great environment ... hopefully our last game of the season.”
Tkachuk, 26, helped push the Panthers to lead the Oilers 3-2, so the pressure will be on the Oilers to avoid elimination in Game 6 and force a Game 7 on Monday night in Sunrise.
Connor McDavid, the captain of the Oilers, will be doing everything he can to stand in the way of the Panthers making it to the top of the National Hockey League.
During Game 4 and Game 5, McDavid became the first player in the history of the NHL to make four points during each of two consecutive games in the final.
McDavid, 27, is also coming close to breaking another record.
Wayne Gretzky, another Canadian ice hockey player for the Oilers, holds the league’s record for the most Stanley Cup playoff points in a single postseason.
Gretzky scored 47 in 1985. McDavid has scored 42.
The Panthers will look for their third chance to win the Stanley Cup Final, but as fans head out to watch parties, they’re sharing advice, knowing it hasn’t been all smooth on the ice either.
“You can’t let up any short-handed goal,” said a Panthers fan.
The energy has been electric through this series, but it’s also been a nail-biter.
The Panthers are back in hostile territory for Game 6. They left Thursday after practice, saying that really, nothing’s changed.
“You know it’s easy at home to use the fans to get you motivated, but I think if you look at it with a certain frame of mind, you can use the opposing crowd’s energy and use it as fuel to get you going and have fun with it and enjoy it. I think that will be key for us,” said Panthers center Evan Rodrigues.
While the action is on the ice up north, the party is still right here in South Florida.
Another massive watch party is set to take place at Amerant Bank Arena.
And the big thing to watch: The puck and player tracking system.
It’s able to identify in real-time the position of every player and the puck during Game 6 in Canada. Eight projectors then display it all right onto the arena.
Fans are hoping to witness history tonight.
Game 6 airs at 8 p.m. right here on Local 10.
Hockey fans can also tune in to Local 10′s Chasing the Cup pre-game show starting at 7:30 p.m.
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