The Edmonton Oilers won Game 1 of their Stanley Cup Final series vs. the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night thanks to an overtime power play off a penalty on Panthers left wing Tomas Nosek.
With just under two minutes on the clock, Nosek mistakenly sent the puck sailing over the glass, spawning a delay of game penalty and a two-minute minor. Even as he skated toward the box, the left wing looked like he knew what would happen: the Oilers would take the game, and it would be his fault, however unintentional.
The 32-year-old opened up about the moment and the resulting guilt on Friday.
"Yeah, it was tough for sure. You don't want to be the one guy who costs us the game," he said in his first comments since the loss. "Obviously everybody can make a mistake. It happened at a bad time, in overtime, and cost us a game. But it's in the past and I'm now looking forward to just keep doing my job and focusing on tonight's game."
Nosek purposely did not comment, however, on Edmonton defenseman Jake Walman, who taunted him as he left the ice.
"No comments on that," he said.
Meanwhile, Nosek's teammates were also quite forgiving of the error, which you would hopefully expect at such an elite level.
"They've been really helpful for sure," Nosek said of the Panthers roster. "Most of the guys came to me and said, 'Don't worry about it,'" he said.
Hopefully, he can shake it off in preparation for Game 2, beginning Friday night at 8 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Panthers' Tomas Nosek Opens Up About Costly Game 1 Penalty: 'It Was Tough for Sure'.