Sam Reinhart scored the go-ahead goal 15:11 into the second period and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and a relentless defensive effort the rest of the way made it stand up as the Florida Panthers find themselves in seventh heaven after beating the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 at Amerant Bank Arena to claim the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
After a rather listless performance in Game 6, the Panthers needed to start fast and they did. Skating like demons and laying the body as much as possible.
A high-sticking call on Warren Foegele resulted in another frustrating power play, but right after the penalty expired Anton Lundell held the puck in the Edmonton zone and passed to Carter Verhaeghe. After wisely deciding not to shoot, Verhaeghe rounded the cage and passed off to Evan Rodrigues on the left side boards. Rodrigues curled and whipped the puck towards the net and Verhaeghe was able to deftly deflect it between the legs of Stuart Skinner to give the Panthers the lead at the 4:27 mark.
The frenzied crowd was silenced 2:37 later when Codi Ceci sprung Mattias Janmark on a breakaway with a beautiful stretch pass and his shot caught the top of Bobrovsky’s right pad and ramped up into the net. Florida made a couple of mistakes on this goal. There was no one there to receive Vladimir Tarasenko’s transfer when he moved the puck around the back wall and Aaron Ekblad got caught out of position and had no chance of running down Janmark.
After a few near misses on Skinner, the Cats caught a break when Evan Bouchard’s blast from long range clanged off the post.
The frantic pace continued into the second period with both goalies do their part to keep the game tied.
Florida’s penalty kill came up huge on a simply terrible tripping call on Matthew Tkachuk. A large chunk of the two minutes was spent with Kevin Stenlund playing with no stick.
A stuff attempt by Foegele bounced off Bobrovsky’s torso and fell into the crease where it was swatted out of harms way by Dmitry Kulikov. Verhaeghe gathered the loose puck and skated circle the net to relieve the pressure before outletting to Reinhart. As he crossed the Oilers’ blue line Reinhart looked to center to Verhaeghe. Then, with Edmonton’s defensemen both backing off and drawing together to contain the driving Verhaeghe, he continued downhill before beating Skinner’s glove with a wrist shot from the right circle with 4:49 left in the frame. A perfect ten from Reinhart that would turn out to be the biggest goal in franchise history.
The Oilers would press hard in the third period, outshooting the Panthers 9-4, but to no avail. There would not be a second lead change in the series.
A dangerous play that saw Connor McDavid with the puck on his stick in front of an out of position Bobrovsky was snuffed out by the efforts of Gustav Forsling, Brandon Montour and sliding Eetu Luostarinrn allowing the desperate keeper to dive on the puck to get a stoppage.
Finally, with Skinner off for an extra attacker the Panthers kept the puck pinned to the boards as the clock ran out on the Oilers potentially historic comeback.
An amazing effort from the Panthers, who righted the ship under the most dire of circumstances to avoid infamy and deliver the Stanley Cup to South Florida after thirty years of waiting. The dream has come true!
Stanley Stuff
- Sergei Bobrovsky was named First Star for his 23-save effort. Bobrovksy finished the postseason with a 16-8 record; 2.32 GAA, .908 save percentage and two shutouts. He had his wobbles, but Bobrovsky came up big when most needed.
- Carter Verhaeghe matched Matthew Tkachuk’s franchise record of 11 goals in the playoffs when he opened the scoring. After struggling greatly for most of the series, to finish off with a goal and an assist in Game 7 was completely clutch for Carter.
- Unsung Hero Award has to go to Evan Rodrigues. Rodrigues collected at least a point in five of the seven games and led the Panthers in scoring in the Stanley Cup Final with four goals and seven points. What a series! He will be the first Evan on the Stanley Cup.
- Congrats to Connor McDavid, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy. McDavid finished the postseason with a staggering 42 points and set a new NHL record for assists (34). After racking up a total of eight points in Game 4 and Game 5, the Panthers shut him out in the final two games. McDavid was limited to two shots in 25:42 TOI in Game 7.
- Aleksander Barkov, who had five points in the series and 22 during the postseason (tied for the team lead with Tkachuk), became the first Finnish-born player to captain a team to an NHL title.
- Hats off to Florida’s penalty killers. At times, it felt like the Oilers were scoring at will, but the Panthers’ PK held Edmonton’s vaunted power play to three goals in seven games.
- Paul Maurice finally won a Stanley Cup after coaching the most games in NHL history before his first title with 1,985 (1,848 in the regular season, 137 in the postseason). PoMo is now 5-0 in Game 7 in his NHL career.