Sam Reinhart scored four goals and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots as the Florida Panthers clinched another Stanley Cup with a dominating 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena.
Sam Bennett was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for his league-leadings 15 goals, 13 of which were scored on the road, a new NHL record.
On with the action!
After the Oilers registered the game’s first four shots, the Panthers broke through when Mattias Ekholm sent a pass into the legs of Evan Bouchard. As Bouchard went to backhand the puck up the ice, Reinhart intercepted and broke towards Stuart Skinner, walking Ekholm with an fantastic outside-inside move before firing the puck in as he was falling down at the 4:36 mark.
With time running out in the opening frame, the Panthers added another. Following Anton Lundell denial of Bouchard at the Florida blue line, Eetu Luostarinen took possession and lugged the puck into the Oilers zone. Luostarinen pulled up at the top of the right circle and patiently waited for Matthew Tkachuk to join the play. Tkachuk accepted Luostarinen pass and let go of a wrister from the high slot that found its way past Skinner with Lundell applying the screen with 47 seconds left on the clock. Huge!
The second period saw Edmonton’s Connor McDavid have a couple of prime chances to set up Corey Perry in front, but the passes just didn’t click, leaving the frustrated Oilers down a pair.
Florida would extend the lead with another goal late in the period. After Aleksander Barkov put on puck possession clinic for the sell-out crowd, he handed off to Carter Verhaeghe, who put a high, off-speed shot on Skinner. Instead of blockering the puck away or catching it against his chest, Skinner unwisely chose to sort of shrug the biscuit to his right. An unmarked Barkov was there to collect, and he sent a back door pass to Reinhart that deflected in off his skate.
Down by three, Kris Knoblauch pulled Skinner with seven minutes remaining in regulation and Reinhart would complete the first postseason hat trick in franchise history into the empty net 36 seconds later, with the assists going to Barkov and Verhaeghe after the trio worked the puck out of the Florida zone.
Verhaeghe would combine with Aaron Ekblad to set up Reinhart for another empty-netter at 14;55 to make it 5-0, Cats. Reinhart sent the puck over Ekholm’s stick while being pulled down by a sad McDavid at center ice.
Vasily Podkolzin, who was probably the most effective Oiler in Game 6, spoiled the shutout bid at 15:18 when he found a loose puck in the crease and knocked it home after Bobrovksy stopped Jake Walman’s blast from the right. Connor Brown drew the secondary assist on the final goal of the 2024-25 season.
And that was that! After barely holding off Edmonton in Game 7 last year, the Panthers left absolutely no doubt who was the better team this time around by winning four of the last five games and outscoring the Oilers 28-17 in the series. A big key to Florida’s success was starting fast. The Cats scored 13 times in the first period while only allowing four goals, forcing Edmonton to play from behind. Florida led for a record 255:49 of the series while Oilers held the lead for just 33:51 Just a complete team effort from the league’s best team. You’ve done a man’s job, sirs! Let’s do it again next year!
Stanley Stuff
- First Star Sam Reinhart’s four goals tied the record for most in a Stanley Cup Final game, and he became the second player (Babe Dye of Toronto St. Patricks was the other) in NHL history with four goals in a Stanley Cup-clinching win. Reinhart went bonkers over the final four games of the series, amassing seven goals and ten points from Game 3 to Game 6 to finish the postseason with 11 goals and 23 points, which tied him with Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe, who quietly had three assists in Game 6, for most on the team.
- Speaking of Tkachuk he ended up scoring the Stanley Cup-clinching goal to cap a fine postseason that saw him unsure how much he’d be able to contribute at the start. Despite not being 100%, Tkachuk appeared in all 23 games, scored seven goals and matched Aleksander Barkov with a team-high 16 assists.
- After going 16-8 last year, Sergei Bobrovsky recorded a 16-7 record this time around. Bobrovsky finished the playoffs with a 2.20 GAA, .914 save percentage and three shutouts. All of those numbers are better than what he posted in 2023-24. Neveroyatnyy!
- Perhaps the best trade deadline acquisition of all-time, former Bruin Brad Marchand would’ve been just as worthy a Conn Smythe-winner as Sam Bennett. Marchand contributed ten goals, many of them key, ten assists and was one of six Panthers to finish with 20 or more points.
- Gotta give a big shoutout to feisty Finns Eetu Luostarinen (19 points, +11) and Anton Lundell (18 points, +17). Not only did these two contribute much more offensively than expected, they were so damn gritty and took care of so many of the little things that go unnoticed. The only players with more points at even-strength than Luostarinen were Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Florida’s third line might be the biggest reason they were able to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
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