Oilers

SUNRISE, Fla. — Stanley’s stay in South Florida is getting extended.

The Florida Panthers repeated as Stanley Cup champions by beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the Final on Tuesday night, becoming the NHL’s first back-to-back winners since Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 and the third team to do it this century.

Sam Reinhart scored four goals, becoming just the sixth player in league history and first since Maurice Richard in 1957 to get that many in a game in the Final. His third to complete the hat trick sent rats, along with hats, flying onto the ice. Matthew Tkachuk, one of the faces of the franchise, fittingly scored the Cup clincher.

More rats were part of the victory celebration when the clock hit zeroes. Panthers players mobbed in the corner, while the Oilers watched in dismay.

The Florida Panthers celebrate immediately after winning their second straight Stanley Cup.

“Good evening, South Florida,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said before presenting the trophy to captain Aleksander Barkov. “It feels like we just did this.”

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced, closing the door on a rematch with the same end result. The only goal came from fellow Russian Vasily Podkolzin in garbage time, long after the outcome was decided.

That was followed by chants of “We want the Cup!” as time ticked down. The Panthers already had it. Now they get to keep it.

“This is as good as the first one,” Reinhart said. “We learned some lessons. We stayed on the gas, foot on the pedal, and obviously the result speaks for itself.”

Not long after the Lightning made three consecutive trips to the Final, Florida has done the same and now has the makings of a dynasty. The Panthers have won 11 of 12 playoff series since Tkachuk arrived by trade and Paul Maurice took over as coach in the summer of 2022.

“We’ve got to be a dynasty now,” Tkachuk said. “Three years in a row finals, two championships. This is a special group.”

Panthers coach Paul Maurice hugs defenseman Uvis Balinskis after the team’s Stanley Cup win over the Oilers.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

The only time they have been on the wrong side of a handshake line was the final in Vegas in 2023, only after several key players were banged up and gutting through significant injuries.

From the core of Tkachuk, Reinhart, Barkov and Sam Bennett on down the roster, they were much healthier this time around and were boosted by key trade deadline additions Brad Marchand and Seth Jones. Bennett led all goal-scorers this postseason with 15, and Marchand had six in the final alone.

Bennett won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Barkov handed the Cup to first-time champion Nate Schmidt, and all the others winning it for the first time got it soon after.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman presents the Conn Smythe Trophy to Florida forward Sam Bennett after the Panthers’ win in Game 6.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

“It’s amazing to be able to be here,” Schmidt said. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

Getting depth contributions from throughout the lineup allowed them to overpower Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers, who struggled with Florida’s ferocious forecheck and switched goaltenders multiple times in the Final. Stuart Skinner got the nod in Game 6 and was again done in by mistakes in front of him that 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 stymied by Barkov, Jones and Bobrovsky. He finished with seven points in his second career trip to the Final, again denied his first title.

The Panthers spent more time leading during this Stanley Cup Final than any previous team in history, 255:49 minutes in all.

“We lost to a really good team,” McDavid said. “Nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in, but they’re a heck of a team. They’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason.”

Canada’s Stanley Cup drought reached 31 seasons and 32 years dating to Montreal in 1993. Teams in the U.S. Sun Belt have won it five of the past six times, four of them in Florida.

Highlights from the Florida Panthers’ 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

This run through Tampa Bay in five games, Toronto in seven, Carolina in five and Edmonton in six showed how clinical the Panthers have become under Maurice, who has coached more NHL games than everyone except Scotty Bowman and is now a two-time champion.

So is Marchand, who last hoisted the Cup in 2011 with the Boston Bruins. The 14-year gap is the third-longest in league history, just shy of 16 for Chris Chelios from 1986 to 2002 and 15 for Mark Recchi from ’91 to ’06.

“It’s incredible,” Marchand said. “It’s a feeling you can’t really describe. Seeing the family and everyone up there and everyone that supported me and helped me get to this point, words can’t put this into reality how great it feels. Such an incredible group.”

Reinhart is the first player to score four goals in a Stanley Cup final since Montreal Canadiens’ Maurice Richard in 1957.

It took Reinhart four minutes and 36 seconds to open the scoring and the Panthers never looked back.

Matthew Tkachuk, who said after the game he had been playing with a torn adductor muscle and a hernia, doubled Florida’s lead by the end of the first quarter before Reinhart scored a further three unanswered.

Edmonton’s Vasily Podkolzin grabbed a consolation for the five-time Stanley Cup winners, but their last triumph in the competition came in 1989-90.

“We’re a dynasty,” Tkachuk said.

“I can’t believe this is what has happened… It just shows how unbelievable the group is, the depth.

“The culture down here is very, very unique. Hopefully, we can do it again.”

SUNRISE, Fla. — Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing back after allowing the late tying goal.

Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left in the third period, before Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to send it to overtime. Three of the first four games of this final have needed extra time to be settled, the first time that has happened since 2013 and fifth time in NHL history.

Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams — sent the series back to Western Canada all even. Game 5 of what’s turning into a classic back-and-forth series between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday night in Edmonton.

The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006.

Edmonton is very much in it now, even after it looked like it would be blown out of the series. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a back-breaker.

Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured.

Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the first 18 shots he faced and paving the way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first power play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with another shot up high and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with less than five minutes left in the second.

With Draisaitl in the penalty box to start the third, Oilers were on their heels for several minutes and relied on Pickard to keep the score tied. He turned aside every shot he faced until Walman fired the puck past Bobrovsky to silence a vast majority of the crowd and incite a roar out of the Edmonton fans among those in attendance along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Panthers fans had one more chance to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them again.

With Hockey Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist also in the building, the Oilers made sure they would not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 in the final like they did last year. They forced Game 7 then but ultimately fell short, with Florida winning the Cup for the first time in franchise history.

Now each of these teams is a couple of victories away from being champions.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett scored again, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe each got their first goal in the Stanley Cup Final and the defending champion Florida Panthers capitalized on the Edmonton Oilers’ worst performance in weeks to win Game 3 in a 6-1 rout Monday night and take a 2-1 series lead.

Marchand became the oldest player to score in each of the first three games of a final and the first to open the scoring the next time out after notching an overtime winner. His 11 goals in the final are the most among active players, one more than similarly ageless Corey Perry.

Bennett added his NHL playoff-leading 14th goal, just the second at home, after making a big hit on Edmonton’s Vasily Podkolzin that contributed to the turnover to spring him on a breakaway. Marchand and Bennett have combined to score eight of Florida’s 13 goals in the series.

But it was not just them this time. Verhaeghe buried a perfect shot into the net under the cross bar on the power play, Reinhart made up for missing the net on an earlier attempt, Aaron Ekblad scored to chase Stuart Skinner on the fifth goal on 23 shots and Evan Rodrigues added the exclamation point in the waning minutes.

At the other end of the ice, Sergei Bobrovsky earned the “Bobby! Bobby!” chants from a fired up South Florida crowd. The two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender known as “Bob” was on his game for the very few quality chances the discombobulated Oilers mustered, making 32 saves.

Perry — at 40 the oldest player in the series — beat Bobrovsky with some silky hands for a power-play goal, keeping up this final being a showcase of cagey veterans along with Marchand.

Connor McDavid could not get his team on track, and Edmonton took 15 minors — led by Evander Kane’s three plus a misconduct to add up to 85 penalty minutes — including a brawl that ensued with less than 10 minutes left. Trent Frederic and Darnell Nurse, who fought Jonah Gadjovich, got misconducts that knocked them out of a game with an outcome determined long before.

After the final looked as evenly matched as can be with Games 1 and 2 each needing extra time, overtime and then double OT, Game 3 was a lopsided mismatch. The Oilers came unglued to the point Jake Walman resorted to squirting water on Panthers players on their bench from his spot on the visiting side.

The teams have some extra time off before Game 4 on Thursday night, when the Panthers have the chance to take a 3-1 lead and move to the verge of going back to back.