Panthers on top of the world once again!
The curtain has come down on the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Florida Panthers being the Champions of the NHL for the second year in a row after a 5-1 drubbing of the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6.
In a rematch of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, both teams started with close games that saw 3 overtimes in the first 4 games. However, Games 5 and 6 were completely dominated by the Panthers as they ran away with the series and the Cup in dominant fashion.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game, the Panthers needed just one more win, and they did so in commanding fashion, putting the game beyond doubt with great plays of both the offense and defense.
Facing a do-or-die situation in Game 6, the Edmonton Oilers took the ice at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, ready to put up a fight. They started the game with aggression, laying out some top-notch hits and testing Sergei Bobrovsky on multiple occasions.
However, a lapse in concentration by defender Evan Bouchard led to Panthers’ forward Sam Reinhart stealing the puck to score the first goal of the night to put Florida in the lead. Before the first period came to an end, the Panthers had doubled their lead through a Matthew Tkachuk wrist shot that found its way into the net.
Edmonton’s hopes of a comeback started to fall apart with just about two and a half minutes left in the second period as Alexander Barkov’s shot from close in ricocheted off Reinhart’s skates into the net to hand him his second goal of the night.
Down 0-3 with just 7 minutes left to salvage their hopes of sending the series to a Game 7 at home, the Oilers pulled their goalie for a man advantage, leaving their net unmanned. However, the gamble failed to pay off as Reinhart struck twice again, putting the puck in the empty net to give the Panthers a commanding 5-0 lead.
Edmonton finally scored a late goal, but the writing was already on the wall by then. The Panthers’ offense made crucial plays, and Bobrovsky was rock solid in the net all game long to hand Florida its second Stanley Cup in as many years.
Also Read: Stanley Cup Winners Over the Years – List of the Teams Who Have Won the Stanley Cup!
Interestingly, this dominance lately is new for the Panthers, who had a history of underperforming in the postseason till recently. Prior to the 2022-23 season, they had won only 4 playoff series in their first 28 seasons, but since then, they have reigned supreme with 11 playoff series wins in the last 3 years alone.
Panthers forward Sam Reinhart had the game of his life on Tuesday night. The 29-year-old came up huge in the biggest moments, scoring 4 goals in Game 6. This achievement put him among an extremely rare company that features only one other player.
The last time 4 goals were scored in a Stanley Cup Final game came on April 6, 1957, by Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard, who achieved the rare feat of scoring 4 goals against the Boston Bruins. This, however, happened in Game 1 of the series.
As for Reinhart, his 4-goal contribution in a Stanley Cup-winning game on Tuesday tied a long-standing 103-year-old record set way back in 1922 when the Toronto St. Pat’s player Babe Dye scored 4 goals in Game 5, enabling his team to lift the Cup with a 4-1 series win over the Vancouver Millionaires.
Read More: Florida Panthers Stanley Cup Wins – History of Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup Wins Over the Years
Florida will now bask in their latest success as they have now become only the third team to win back-to-back titles since the turn of the century. The Pittsburgh Penguins did it in 2016, 2017, the Tampa Bay Lightning did it in 2020, 2021, and the Panthers have now done it in 2024 and 2025. Now, the next big question heading into the offseason is whether they can continue this dominance and extend it to a three-peat in 2026.
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