Panthers win franchise’s first Stanley Cup with Game 7 win over Oilers
From the outset, the Florida Panthers said this was going to happen. They made the declaration in training camp that they were going to finish the job they couldn’t finish last year. The 2023-24 season would not be a success without a Stanley Cup.
They proved themselves right.
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The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in the franchise’s 30-season history, sealing the deal with a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena.
However, the final push to the finish line left little room for comfort.
Florida won the first three games of the series by scores of 3-0, 4-1 and 4-3, then lost the next three games — 8-1 in Game 4, 5-3 in Game 5 and 5-1 in Game 6 — to force the winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday.
After three games looking like a shell of themselves and allowing the Oilers to get back into the series, Florida returned to form when it needed to the most.
Two of its stars that were quiet for most of the series in Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored goals.
Veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who spent his first seven of 15 NHL seasons with the Panthers before returning to Florida this season, saved a game-tying goal late in the second period by clearing a puck as he crashed to the net. That play set up Reinhart’s go-ahead goal.
And goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky shut down Edmonton, stopping 23-of-24 shots he faced.
With that, it ends one of the longest droughts for an NHL franchise before winning its first Stanley Cup.
Only four other teams in NHL history waited longer than 30 seasons before hoisting the Cup for the first time: The St. Louis Blues (51 seasons), Los Angeles Kings (44 seasons), Washington Capitals (43 seasons) and Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars (32 seasons).
And this comes after the Panthers lost in the Stanley Cup Final just last year in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights, making them the first team since the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup the year after losing in the Cup Final.
The Panthers are also the final of South Florida’s big-four professional sports teams to win a championship. The Miami Dolphins won Super Bowls in 1972 and 1973. The Miami Marlins won World Series in 1997 and 2003. The Miami Heat won NBA championships in 2006, 2012 and 2013
