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The Florida Panthers have once again defeated the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup.
They needed one less game in this best-of-seven series, routing the Oilers, 5-1, in Game 6 to seal back-to-back championships on Tuesday night.
Sam Reinhart was a true star in this series clincher, scoring four goals for Florida to lead them to victory.
The Panthers are the first team since the Tampa Bay Lightning to defend their title, as they won in 2020 and 2021.
Reinhart, who scored in Games 3-5, was a man on a mission from the beginning of this one as evident by his first goal of the game, which gave the Panthers an early lead.
He went flying into Edmonton’s zone, stole the puck from Evan Bouchard, deked around Mattias Ekholm with a nifty move and sniped a shot past Stuart Skinner as he went down to the ice. It was all in a blur, but the celebration was an emphatic roar from Reihart as the home crowd went into a frenzy.
Then, with just seconds left to play in the first period, Eetu Luostarinen brought the puck into the offensive zone and was extremely patient as he surveyed his teammates rushing in with him. Matthew Tkachuk, who has a flare for the dramatic in these big games, came right in behind him and wristed a shot past Skinner to take a commanding 2-0 lead after one.
Things went silent in the second period, as both teams traded blows on the offensive end, but to no avail. Shots were in favor of Edmonton, who knew they needed to get something into the net to bring momentum to their side.
But an odd shot from Carter Verhaeghe took a Panthers bounce off Skinner’s body, landing right at the stick of captain Aleksander Barkov, who sent it right to Reinhart for the deflection into the net.
A 3-0 deficit in a must-win game was a killer for Edmonton, and they couldn’t recover as they did previously in this series.
They emptied the net with over six minutes left to play in the third period with that 3-0 hole still intact. That’s when the Panthers made it a point to find Reinhart, who not only secured his hat trick, but added one more off the boards to make it 5-0.
The Oilers were able to get on the board with Vasily Podkolzin’s backhand shot spoiling Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout.
But that didn’t ruin the angst the entire team had, knowing the job was done, and the Cup was staying in Florida. The Panthers rushed onto the ice before the final horn blew, as the celebration ensued.
Sam Bennett, though he didn’t have a point in this game, was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, which is given to the most valuable player of his team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Meanwhile, with another Oilers loss, a team from Canada has not won the Stanley Cup since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.
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