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 fourth player in league history 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, the AP reports. At the other end of the ice, 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 off the clock. The Panthers already had it. Now they get to keep it. Not long after the Lightning made three trips to the final in a row, Florida has done the same and now has the makings of a modern-day dynasty. The Panthers have won 11 of 12 playoff series since Matthew Tkachuk arrived by trade and Paul Maurice took over as coach in the summer of 2022. 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 dealing with banged up and gutting through significant injuries. Canada's Stanley Cup drought reached 31 seasons and 32 years dating to Montreal in 1993. Teams in the US Sun Belt have won it five of the past six times, four of them in Florida.
(More
Stanley Cup stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
