For the primary time in historical past, the Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions.
Florida received a 2-1 Recreation 7 thriller on Monday over the Edmonton Oilers to safe a 4-3 sequence victory within the Stanley Cup Closing. The win staved off a historic collapse after the Oilers rallied from a 3-0 sequence deficit to tie the sequence at 3-3.
After permitting 18 targets in consecutive losses in Video games 4-6, Florida’s protection returned to type Monday night time anchored by a stellar efficiency from goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky turned again 23 of 24 Edmonton photographs together with a late Oilers flurry that threatened to tie the sport.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid secured the Conn Smythe trophy as probably the most helpful participant of the whole Stanley Cup playoffs regardless of his group’s loss. He is the sixth participant in NHL historical past to win the award from a shedding group and the primary since Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Geese in 2003.
The Panthers stifled McDavid and the remainder of the Oilers protection in Monday’s decisive Recreation 7.
The primary interval received off to a scorching begin. The Panthers secured the sport’s first energy play on a high-sticking penalty by Warren Foegele lower than three minutes in. It did not instantly convert to a power-play purpose, however Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe broke the scoreless tie seconds after it ended.
Simply as Edmonton went again to full power, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues fired a slapshot from the left wall that missed the online vast proper. However Verhaeghe knocked the puck from the air along with his stick and snuck it previous Stewart Skinner for a 1-0 Florida lead.
The purpose with 15:33 left within the interval gave Florida its first lead of the sequence because it completed Recreation 3 with a 4-3 win. It was short-lived.
Simply 2:17 later, Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark tied the sport on a breakaway purpose on a sensational help from Cody Ceci.
After a Florida turnover, Ceci corralled the puck behind the Edmonton purpose line then fired it up ice by three Florida defenders. Janmark secured the move forward of the Florida blue line and attacked the online with no defender in his his method. He deked Bobrovsky and despatched a wrist shot into the left facet of the online.
The purpose tied the sport at 1-1 and piled on to a pattern that plagued the Panthers because the Oilers rallied to tie the sequence from a 3-0 deficit. The purpose was the fifth straight for Edmonton within the sequence on breakaway alternatives.
Florida’s protection takes over
However these alternatives dried up as the sport went into the second interval tied at 1-1. The Oilers managed the puck by a lot of the second, however struggled to transform that management into scoring possibilities. Then 15-plus minutes into the second, the Panthers turned an Oilers scoring alternative into considered one of their very own.
Foegele threatened a 2-1 Oilers lead with a shot from the fitting purpose line on a crowded internet. However Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov poked the puck away, and the Panthers secured it to go on the assault. Heart Sam Reinhart transformed the chance on the opposite finish with a slapshot from the fitting wing that discovered the again of the online for a 2-1 Panthers lead, sending an keen Florida residence crowd right into a frenzy.
The second interval ended with out one other purpose, and the Panthers entered the third interval with historical past on their facet. Groups main Recreation 7 of the Stanley Cup Closing had received 13 occasions in 14 earlier possibilities. The Panthers had received 25 straight video games when main after two.
Florida’s protection ensured that the Panthers would not break the pattern. A unit that outlined the sequence en path to a 3-0 lead was again in management. The Panthers restricted seems for Connor McDavid continued to maintain All-Star Leon Draisaitl in verify.
McDavid’s finest scoring likelihood arrived with 7:05 left within the recreation. However he misplaced management of the puck instantly in entrance of the online, and the Oilers didn’t get it previous Bobrovsky.
Edmonton ramped up the stress on Bobrovsky within the last minutes or regulation, however could not get the puck previous the Florida goaltender on a number of possibilities.
However Edmonton could not break by to tie the sport even after pulling Skinner within the recreation’s last minutes.
Panthers break by after 30 seasons
The win is the primary in three journeys to the Stanley Cup Closing for the Panthers since their inception in 1993-94. They first performed for the Cup in 1996, their third 12 months within the NHL, however have been swept by the Colorado Avalanche. They made it again final season, the primary beneath head coach Paul Maurice, however fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in 5 video games.
The Panthers did not expertise any type of hangover this season after an extended 2023 playoff run. They improved by 10 wins and 18 factors to win the Atlantic Division title and end third within the Jap Convention in the course of the common season.
Within the playoffs, the Panthers knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 video games and the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers in six video games to achieve the Cup Closing in opposition to the Oilers. Now, for the primary time in franchise historical past, they’re Stanley Cup champions.
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