The Florida Panthers on Monday defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time as Canada’s 31-year title drought continued.
Goals from Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart sealed a 4-3 series victory for the Panthers against an Oilers outfit who had rallied from 3-0 down in the series to force a decisive Game 7.
“I’ve been chasing that for a long time,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It was perfect Florida Panther fashion — nothing’s easy. Nothing’s easy for us.”
Photo: Sam Navarro-USA Today
Edmonton had been bidding to become the first team from Canada since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 to win the NHL championship.
The Oilers were also attempting to become only the second team in NHL history to overturn a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup, but the Panthers — beaten by Las Vegas in last year’s Stanley Cup Final — were in no mood to let victory slip away for a second straight year.
Roared on by their home fans at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers surged into the lead after only 4 minutes, 27 seconds of the opening period.
Right wing Evan Rodrigues smashed a shot from wide on the left and Verhaeghe was on hand in the goalmouth to tip in past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner.
Edmonton silenced the home fans soon afterward with a superb equalizer.
Cody Ceci’s long pass split the Florida defense and was collected by Mattias Janmark, who glided toward the Panthers net and coolly tucked away a finish past Florida’s Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Florida regained the lead in the second period after a breathless passage of play that started with defender Dmitry Kulikov desperately shoveling away the puck on the goal-line to prevent a certain Oilers score.
Florida’s Sam Reinhart gathered, swept up the wing and let rip with a long-range snap shot that flew past Skinner for the score.
Sam Bennett almost made it 3-1 to Florida in the third period only to be denied by a brilliant Skinner save.
As the tension mounted, the Oilers laid siege to the Florida goal and only some last-ditch defending kept Edmonton at bay.
Relieved Panthers star player Rodrigues said Florida had been relaxed going into the decider.
“They say this is the hardest trophy to win in sports, and you can’t imagine how hard it is until you do it, but getting to Game 7, it took pressure off of us, and we did it the hard way ... it was a perfect outcome,” Rodrigues said.
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