Stanley Cup Final: Panthers win Game 7 thriller over Oilers to secure first championship in franchise history

For the first time in history, the Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions.

Florida won a 2-1 Game 7 thriller on Monday over the Edmonton Oilers to secure a 4-3 series victory in the Stanley Cup Final. The win staved off a historic collapse after the Oilers rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to tie the series at 3-3.

After allowing 18 goals in consecutive losses in Games 4-6, Florida’s defense returned to form Monday night anchored by a stellar performance from goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky turned back 23 of 24 Edmonton shots including a late Oilers flurry that threatened to tie the game.

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid secured the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player of the entire Stanley Cup playoffs despite his team’s loss. He’s the sixth player in NHL history to win the award from a losing team and the first since Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 2003.

The Panthers stifled McDavid and the rest of the Oilers defense in Monday’s decisive Game 7.

The first period got off to a scorching start. The Panthers secured the game’s first power play on a high-sticking penalty by Warren Foegele less than three minutes in. It didn’t directly convert to a power-play goal, but Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe broke the scoreless tie seconds after it ended.

Just as Edmonton went back to full strength, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues fired a slapshot from the left wall that missed the net wide right. But Verhaeghe knocked the puck from the air with his stick and snuck it past Stewart Skinner for a 1-0 Florida lead.

The goal with 15:33 left in the period gave Florida its first lead of the series since it finished Game 3 with a 4-3 win. It was short-lived.

Oilers answer

Just 2:17 later, Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark tied the game on a breakaway goal on a sensational assist from Cody Ceci.

After a Florida turnover, Ceci corralled the puck behind the Edmonton goal line then fired it up ice through three Florida defenders. Janmark secured the pass ahead of the Florida blue line and attacked the net without a defender in his his way. He deked Bobrovsky and sent a wrist shot into the left side of the net.

The goal tied the game at 1-1 and piled on to a trend that plagued the Panthers as the Oilers rallied to tie the series from a 3-0 deficit. The goal was the fifth straight for Edmonton in the series on breakaway opportunities. It turned out to be its last.

Florida’s defense takes over, sets up series winner

Edmonton’s opportunities dried up as the game went into the second period tied at 1-1. The Oilers controlled the puck through much of the second, but struggled to convert that control into scoring chances. Then 15-plus minutes into the period, the Panthers turned an Oilers scoring opportunity into one of their own.

Foegele threatened a 2-1 Oilers lead with a shot from the right goal line on a crowded net. But Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov poked the puck away, and the Panthers secured it to go on the attack. Center Sam Reinhart converted the opportunity on the other end with a slapshot from the right wing that found the back of the net for a 2-1 Panthers lead, sending an eager Florida home crowd into a frenzy.

The second period ended without another goal, and the Panthers entered the third period with history on their side. Teams leading Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final had won 13 times in 14 previous chances. The Panthers had won 25 straight games when leading after two.

Florida’s defense ensured that the Panthers wouldn’t break the trend. A unit that defined the series en route to a 3-0 lead was back in control. The Panthers limited looks for Connor McDavid continued to keep All-Star Leon Draisaitl in check.

McDavid’s best scoring chance arrived with 7:05 left in the game. But he lost control of the puck directly in front of the net, and the Oilers failed to get it past Bobrovsky.

Edmonton ramped up the pressure on Bobrovsky in the final minutes or regulation, but couldn’t get the puck past the Florida goaltender on multiple chances.

But Edmonton couldn’t break through to tie the game even after pulling Skinner in the game’s final minutes.

Panthers break through after 30 seasons

The win is the first in three trips to the Stanley Cup Final for the Panthers since their inception in 1993-94. They first played for the Cup in 1996, their third year in the NHL, but were swept by the Colorado Avalanche. They made it back last season, the first under head coach Paul Maurice, but fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

The Panthers didn’t experience any sort of hangover this season after a long 2023 playoff run. They improved by 10 wins and 18 points to win the Atlantic Division title and finish third in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.

In the playoffs, the Panthers knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games and the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers in six games to reach the Cup Final against the Oilers. Now, for the first time in franchise history, they’re Stanley Cup champions.