The Florida Panthers contained a relentless attack from the Edmonton Oilers in the third period to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals 2-1 on Monday.
Both teams split goals at the end of the first period. Carter Verhaeghe gave Florida the 1-0 lead with a tip-in nearly five minutes into the opening stanza.
Minutes later, Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark hit a wrist shot to tie the game one-all heading into the second.
Sam Reinhart would be the lone scorer in the middle period, giving the Panthers the 2-1 lead they would hold to secure their first Stanley Cup title as a franchise.
The Oilers desperately tried to scrape a goal in the final period, outshooting the Panthers in the third with nine shots on goal to Florida’s four.
The Florida Panthers secured their first Stanley Cup after a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton would also have more shots on goal for the game’s entirety – 24 to Florida’s 21. The winners, however, had 31 hits to Edmonton’s 20 and 17 blocks to the Oilers’ 14.
After being forced on their heels in the final period, the now-champions had 13 giveaways and 12 takeaways. Meanwhile, the Oilers had nine and seven, respectively.
Edmonton routed the LA Kings in five games, Vancouver Canucks in seven, and the Dallas Stars in six games to secure their spot in the Finals.
On the other hand, the Panthers’ championship run began with a gentlemen’s sweep over the Tampa Bay Lightning, a six-game series over the Boston Bruins, followed by another against the New York Rangers.
Florida gained a convincing 3-0 lead but left fans on the edge of their seat as Edmonton climbed back to force a clincher. In search of their sixth franchise Stanley Cup title and first since 1990, the Oilers were denied the chance to make history by overcoming the 0-3 deficit.
The Panthers won their first title in seven games after going of 3-0 over the Oilers in the series
Florida contained Edmonton’s relentless attack in the third, tallying 20 blocks on the evening
Edmonton had more shots on goal for the game’s entirety – 24 to Florida’s 21
The only other team to complete the feat was the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 against the Detroit Red Wings. The
Panthers got outscored 18-5 in Games 4, 5 and 6 to waste three chances at winning the Cup.
They brought in seven-time Grammy winner Alanis Morissette – she was born in Canada and became a dual U.S. citizen in 2005 – to sing the national anthems. Hardly anybody could hear her; the Oilers fans drowned her out for ‘O Canada,’ the Panthers fans did the same for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ They had Panthers legend Roberto Luongo bang the ceremonial bass drum after that; he urged fans to ‘let´s go’ with an extra word in there that needed to be bleeped a few times.
The pregame was raucous. The stage was set. And the teams came out absolutely ablaze.
The Panthers routed the Lightning, Bruins, and Rangers on their way to their first title
Carter Verhaeghe gave Florida the 1-0 lead with a tip-in five minutes into the first period
Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark hit a wrist shot to tie the game one-all heading into the second
Sam Reinhart would be the lone scorer in the middle period, giving Florida a 2-1 advantage
The Panthers got the first goal just 4:27 into the game when Verhaeghe waved his stick at the puck that was fired in from the left side by Evan Rodrigues and got just enough to redirect it past Skinner for a 1-0 lead – the first Florida lead since the end of Game 3.
They waited more than a week to be back on top. They stayed there for just over two minutes.
Janmark got behind the Florida defense and beat Bobrovsky over the right shoulder at 6:44, knotting things right back up and ensuring that this Game 7 of the final – like all 17 of the previous such games – wouldn´t end 1-0.
It stayed that way through wild ebbs and flows – the Oilers controlled long stretches, the Panthers would counter, back and forth – until Reinhart scored late in the second to put Florida up 2-1. It capped a crazy sequence, one where Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov wound 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 Florida single-season record, and it was up to the Panthers to make it hold up.
Florida was an NHL-best 44-0-3 entering Monday when leading after two periods this season. An NHL-best 85-2-6 in that situation in the two seasons under coach Paul Maurice, too.
They slammed the door, one last time. And the Cup was their reward.
‘This is the best moment of my life so far,’ veteran Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. ‘Nothing tops it.’
