EDMONTON, Alberta — Aleksander Barkov led the way offensively, Sergei Bobrovsky was in peak form in goal once again, and the Florida Panthers are on the verge of lifting the Stanley Cup.

Barkov set up a goal and scored another, Bobrovsky made 32 saves to extend his run of dominance, and the Panthers held on to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in Game 3 of the Cup final Thursday night.

They can win the first title in franchise history as soon as Game 4 on Saturday night on Edmonton.

Florida took another step toward hockey’s mountaintop by pouncing on a handful of Edmonton turnovers and keeping Connor McDavid from scoring a goal. A late rally got the Oilers within one but fell short.

Long before that, Barkov forced one of the giveaways by Evan Bouchard seconds before Sam Reinhart’s goal, then netminder Stuart Skinner coughed up the puck on Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal, and Darnell Nurse gave it away on Sam Bennett’s goal.

Barkov had one of the signature moments by getting past the defense and beating Skinner on a breakaway, quieting for some time the crowd that was fired up for the first Stanley Cup Final game with fans in Edmonton since 2006.

It will take the Oilers completing a comeback that has beendone just four times in NHL playoff history – and once in the final all the way back in 1942 – to end Canada’s Cup drought.

The last year a team based in Canada won it was Montreal in 1993, months before the Panthers’ inaugural season. Until this series, they had gone 1-8 in two previous trips to the final.

Behind Barkov and Bobrovsky, Florida has totally flipped that script. The two leading candidates for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP were arguably the two best players on the ice in Game 3, including Barkov bouncing back from a high hit from Leon Draistail that knocked him out of Game 2 on Monday night.

Another big reason the Panthers got here, winger Matthew Tkachuk, also had a big assist and was responsible for turning up the pressure on Edmonton.

The Oilers wilted under it, losing a game in which they could not overcome ill-timed miscues. Skinner allowed four goals on 23 shots, and Connor Brown, Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod scored, while McDavid for the first time all playoffs looked frustrated and out of sorts.

Doing that to elite opponents, defending them to the point of second-guessing their ability to score, is a huge part of the Panthers’ style and a big reason they are on preparing for a potential championship celebration 2,500 miles from home.