There was no collapse. The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions for the first time and took the toughest possible path to the title.
Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals, Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 on Monday night in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. It was the third title round appearance in Florida’s 30-year history; They were swept in 1996 by Colorado and defeated 4-1 by Las Vegas last season.
This time they were on the right side of history, having avoided what would have been a historic collapse. The Panthers won the first three games of the series, then lost the next three and needed a win on Monday to avoid joining the 1942 Detroit Red Wings as the only teams to lose in the finals after taking a 3-0 lead in the title round.
It was not easy. Not even close. But it’s already done. It took the Panthers until the end to deny Connor McDavid his first title and Edmonton what would have been his first Cup since 2006.
Mattias Janmark scored Edmonton’s goal and Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots for the Oilers. The Oilers were also unable to break Canada’s title drought; It’s been 1993 and counting since a Canadian-based team won the Cup.
Montreal was the last to do it, 30 seasons ago. Since then, there have been seven attempts by Canadian-based city teams (Vancouver in 1994 and 2011, Calgary in 2004, the Oilers in 2006, Ottawa in 2007 and the Canadiens in 2021) to win titles, and all were in vain.
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South Florida now has one of everything when it comes to titles from the four major professional sports leagues in the US. The Miami Dolphins were champions twice, the then-Florida Marlins were champions twice, the Miami Heat have three titles and now the Panthers have joined. Party.
Welcome, Stanley. The Panthers have been waiting.
Bobrovsky was as cool as could be, even in the biggest moments. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard got a good look from the right circle with about 14 seconds left in the second period; Bobrovsky blocked the shot and the puck bounced off him and into the air.
No problem. Bobrovsky grabbed his stick and hit the puck again, more like he was playing morning pickleball in a park than in the most important game of his life: literally the last line of defense against the Oilers and against a piece of history that the Panthers He desperately fought to avoid it.
Florida led this title series 3-0, then was outscored 18-5 in Games 4, 5 and 6 to blow three chances to win the Cup. Edmonton was one win away from becoming the second team in the history of the NHL to win the Cup after losing the first three games; Toronto did it against Detroit in 1942, and no team has achieved such a comeback since then.
They brought in seven-time Grammy winner Alanis Morissette (she was born in Canada and became a dual US citizen in 2005) to sing the national anthems. Almost no one could hear her; Oilers fans drowned it out with “O Canada,” Panthers fans did the same with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” They had Panthers legend Roberto Luongo hit the ceremonial bass drum after that; He urged fans to “let’s go” with an additional word that was meant to be played several times.
The pregame was strident. The stage was set.
And the teams came out absolutely on fire.
The Panthers got the first goal just 4:27 into the game when Verhaeghe waved his staff to the puck Evan Rodrigues shot from the left side and got enough to redirect it past Skinner for a 1-0 lead, Florida’s first lead since the end of Game 3.
They waited more than a week to get back on top. They remained there for just over two minutes.
Janmark got behind Florida defense and beat Bobrovsky over the right shoulder at 6:44, tying things up again and ensuring that this Game 7 of the finals, like the previous 17 games, would not end 1-0.
It stayed that way through wild ebbs and flows (the Oilers controlled long stretches, the Panthers counterattacked, back and forth) until Reinhart scored late in the second to put Florida up 2-1. It capped a crazy sequence, in which Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov ended up in the net to help prevent an Edmonton goal seconds before Reinhart beat Skinner. The goal was Reinhart’s 67th of the season, extending his single-season record at Florida, and it was up to the Panthers to make it stick.
Florida had an NHL-best 44-0-3 record entering Monday when leading after two periods this season. Also 85-2-6, the best in the NHL in that situation in the two seasons under coach Paul Maurice.
Associated Press report
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