Getting better with age, Marchand scores twice in the Panthers' Game 5 win over the Oilers

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — It’s 2011 all over again for Brad Marchand, who at 37 is showing signs he’s actually getting better with age in inching the Florida Panthers within a victory of their second straight Stanley Cup title.

Marchand scored twice, including being credited with his second winning goal of the Cup Finals, in a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night. In bouncing back from squandering a 3-0 lead in Game 4 on Thursday, the Panthers return home with a 3-2 series lead for Game 6 on Tuesday.

“Yeah, we’ve been pretty good at bouncing back all playoffs,” Marchand said. “We learned a pretty good lesson last game.”

Of his 10 playoff goals, six have come in the Cup final series, making Marchand the 18th player to do so in the final and first since Edmonton’s Esa Tikkanen scored that many in 1988. And Marchand, who scored five times in Boston’s 2011 Cup-winning final series over Vancouver, joined Mario Lemieux in becoming just the second player over the past 50 years to score five or more times in multiple Cup finals.

He also became the oldest player to do it.

Acquired by Florida at the NHL trade deadline in March, the former Boston captain opened the scoring Saturday night midway through the first period. And then essentially sealed the victory by putting Florida up 3-0 at the 5:12 mark of the third.

Both goals were scored in similar fashion, with Marchand jumping on a loose puck, putting his head down and driving to the net.

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