Sunrise, Fla. (AP) – Stanley’s stay in South Florida is being expanded.
The Florida Panthers Repeated as Stanley Cup champions By beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 Game 6 of the final On Tuesday evening the first back-to-back winners of the NHL Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 And the third team to do it this century.
Sam Reinhart scored four goals and only became the sixth player in the competition history and only since Maurice Richard in 1957 to get so much in a match in the final. His third to complete the hat trick sent rats together with hats that flew on the ice. Matthew Tkachuk, one of the faces of the franchise, scored the Cup clincher in appropriate.
More rats were part of the victory celebration when the clock hit zeros. Panthers players bother in the corner, while the oilers looked shock.
“Good evening, South Florida,” said Commissioner Gary Bettman before presenting the trophy to Captain Aleksander Barkov. “It feels like we’ve just done this.”
Sergei Bobrovsky Stopped 28 of the 29 shots with which he was confronted and closed the door on a rematch with the same end result. The only goal came from colleague Russian Vasily Podkolzin in waste period, long after the outcome was decided.
That was followed by songs of “We want the cup!” As time tapped. The Panthers already had it. Now they can keep it.
“This is almost the first,” said Reinhart. “We learned a few lessons. We stayed on the gas, foot on the pedal and the result clearly speaks for itself.”
Not long after lightning made three trips to the final, Florida did the same and now has the inputs of a modern dynasty. De Panthers have won from 12 playoff -series since T 11 Kachuk arrived Through Trade and Paul Maurice took over as a coach in the summer of 2022.
“We have to be a dynasty now,” said Tkachuk. “Three years in a row finals, two championships. This is a special group.”
The only time they had been on the wrong side of a handshake line was the final in Vegas in 2023, only after several important players had been dealing with and the disintegration of considerable injuries.
From the core of Tkachuk, Reinhart, Barkov and Sam Bennett in the selection, They were much healthier This time it was and was encouraged by important additions to the Deadline of Trade Brad Marchand and Seth Jones. Bennett led all goal scorers this late season with 15 and Marchand had six in the final alone.
Bennett won the Conn Smythe Trophy as a Playoff MVP. Barkov handed the cup to the first champion Nate Schmidt, and everyone who won it for the first time got it soon after.
“It’s great to be here,” said Schmidt. “I don’t know if I have to laugh or cry.”
By getting depth -to get the entire line -they were able to overwhelm Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers, who struggled with the Woest Forecheck of Florida and Felled goalkeepers several times In the final. Stuart Skinner got the nod in Game 6 and was done again by mistakes for him who ended with the Puck in the net behind him and had his own blunder on Reinhart’s second goal.
McDavid tried to take over, but was again impeded by Barkov, Jones and Bobovsky. He ended with seven points in his second career trip to the final, again denied his first title.
The drought of Stanley Cup from Canada reached 31 seasons and 32 years dating from Montreal in 1993. Teams in the US Sun Belt have won five of the last six times, four of them in Florida.
This run through Tampa Bay in Vijf, Toronto in Seven, Carolina in Five and Edmonton showed in six how clinically the Panthers have become under Maurice, who coached more NHL competitions than everyone except Scotty Bowman and is now a double champion.
This also applies to Marchand, who last raised the cup in 2011 at the Boston Bruins. The 14-year-old gap is the third longest in the competition history, just shy from 16 before Chris Chelios from 1986 to 2002 and 15 for Mark Recchi from ’91 to ’06.
“It’s incredible,” said Marchand. “It is a feeling that you can’t really describe. Seeing the family and everyone there and everyone who supported me and helped me come to this point, words cannot bring this into reality how great it feels. Such an incredible group.”
