SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers repeated as Stanley Cup champions by beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Recreation 6 of the ultimate on Tuesday night time, turning into the NHL’s first back-to-back winners since Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 and the third group to do it this century.
Sam Reinhart scored 4 targets, turning into simply the fourth participant in league historical past to get that many in a sport within the ultimate. His third to finish the hat trick despatched rats, together with hats, flying onto the ice. Matthew Tkachuk, one of many faces of the franchise, fittingly scored the Cup clincher.
On the different finish of the ice, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 of the 29 pictures he confronted, closing the door on a rematch with the identical finish end result. The one purpose got here from fellow Russian Vasily Podkolzin in rubbish time, lengthy after the end result was determined.
That was adopted by chants of “We wish the Cup!” as time ticked off the clock. The Panthers already had it. Now they get to maintain it.
Not lengthy after the Lightning made three journeys to the ultimate in a row, Florida has carried out the identical and now has the makings of a modern-day dynasty. The Panthers have gained 11 of 12 playoff collection since Matthew Tkachuk arrived by commerce and Paul Maurice took over as coach in the summertime of 2022.
The one time they’ve been on the incorrect aspect of a handshake line was the ultimate in Vegas in 2023, solely after a number of key gamers have been coping with banged up and gutting by means of important accidents.
From the core of Tkachuk, Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett on down the roster, they have been a lot more healthy this time round and have been boosted by key commerce deadline additions Brad Marchand, who had six targets within the ultimate, and Seth Jones. Bennett led all goal-scorers this postseason with 15, and for his efforts, he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to essentially the most excellent participant of the postseason.
Getting depth contributions from all through the lineup allowed them to overpower Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers, who struggled with Florida’s ferocious forecheck and switched goaltenders a number of instances within the ultimate. Stuart Skinner acquired the nod in Recreation 6 and was once more carried out in by errors in entrance of him that ended with the puck within the web behind him and had his personal blunder on Reinhart’s second purpose.
McDavid tried to take over however was once more stymied by Barkov, Jones and Bobrovsky. He completed with seven factors in his second profession journey to the ultimate, once more denied his first title.
Canada’s Stanley Cup drought reached 31 seasons and 32 years courting to Montreal in 1993. Groups within the U.S. Solar Belt have gained it 5 of the previous six instances, 4 of them in Florida.
This run by means of Tampa Bay in 5, Toronto in seven, Carolina in 5 and Edmonton in six confirmed how scientific the Panthers have change into beneath Maurice, who has coached extra NHL video games than everybody besides Scotty Bowman and is now a two-time champion.
So is Marchand, who final hoisted the Cup in 2011 with the Boston Bruins. The 14-year hole is the third-longest in league historical past, simply shy of 16 for Chris Chelios from 1986 to 2002 and 15 for Mark Recchi from ’91 to ’06.
The Related Press contributed to this report.