Capping their thirtieth season in the National Hockey League, the Florida Panthers today avoided an epic, historic collapse in Game Seven the Stanley Cup Final, capturing their first Stanley Cup over the Edmonton Oilers, who forced the decisive game after coming back from a 3-0 series deficit, with a narrow 2-1 victory on home ice.
After taking a commanding 3-0 series lead on the back of goaltender Sergei Bobrovski, the Oilers roared back to life, capturing the next three to force a seventh and final game, becoming the first team since 1945 to even a Cup Final, and looking to become the first since 1942 to win four straight and complete the reverse sweep.
But it was a 23-save performance from Bobrovski, a second period snipe from Sam Reinhart that served as the game winner, and a solid defensive shutdown in the third period that sealed the victory for the Cats, stopping the epic playoff run of Oilers captain Connor McDavid. McDavid became only the sixth player, and just second forward, to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP despite losing the Cup, scoring an astonishing 42 points in just 25 games.
The win marks Florida’s first Stanley Cup in their third-ever final, after being swept in 1996 by Colorado, and losing in five games last year to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Panthers saw twenty-three IHLC champions from six countries (Canada, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Sweden and the United States) on the roster hoist the Cup, including captain Alexander Barkov, the first Finn to captain a team to the Cup, and head coach Paul Maurice, who wins his first Cup in his nearly thirty year coaching career.
With the victory, six Panthers players now add a Stanley Cup to their World Championship Gold, leaving them one Olympic Gold Medal away from joining the Triple Gold Club; Finland features World Champions in Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola (2019), while Canada has seen winners Aaron Ekblad (2015) and Reinhart (2016), and both Bobrovski (2014) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson (2017) have each captured Gold for Russia and Sweden, respectively.
Our congratulations go out to the players, management and fans of the Florida Panthers, with those on the roster that have also held the IHLC highlighted in bold:
| 🇱🇻 Uvis Balinskis, defence 🇫🇮 Alexander Barkov, forward 🇨🇦 Sam Bennett, forward 🇸🇪 Tobias Björnfot, defence 🇷🇺 Sergei Bobrovski, goaltender 🇨🇦 Nick Cousins, forward 🇨🇦 Aaron Ekblad, defence 🇸🇪 Oliver Ekman-Larsson, defence 🇨🇦 Myles Fee, assistant coach 🇸🇪 Gustav Forsling, defence 🇨🇦 Jonah Gadjovich, forward 🇺🇸 Spencer Knight, goaltender 🇨🇦 Jamie Kompon, assistant coach 🇷🇺 Dmitri Kulikov, defence 🇨🇦 Sylvain Lefebvre, assistant coach 🇺🇸 Will Lockwood, forward 🇨🇦 Ryan Lomberg, forward 🇨🇦 Steven Lorentz, forward |
🇫🇮 Anton Lundell, forward 🇫🇮 Eetu Luostarinen, forward 🇨🇦 Josh Mahura, defence 🇨🇦 Paul Maurice, head coach 🇫🇮 Niko Mikkola, defence 🇨🇦 Brandon Montour, defence 🇺🇸 Kyle Okposo, forward 🇫🇮 Tuomo Ruutu, assistant coach 🇨🇦 Sam Reinhart, forward 🇨🇦 Evan Rodrigues, forward 🇺🇸 Mackie Samoskevich, forward 🇨🇦 Justin Sourdif, forward 🇸🇪 Kevin Stenlund, forward 🇺🇸 Anthony Stolarz, goaltender 🇷🇺 Vladimir Tarasenko, forward 🇺🇸 Matthew Tkachuk, forward 🇨🇦 Carter Verhaeghe, forward 🇺🇸 Bill Zito, general manager |
International Hockey Lineal Championship 