The Florida Panthers, once among the basement-dwellers of the National Hockey League, today captured their second consecutive Stanley Cup, once again besting the Edmonton Oilers to become the first repeat champions since 2021, clinching victory with a definitive 5-1 win over the Oilers in Game Six of the finals in Sunrise, Florida.

Despite splitting the first four games with a pair of wins each, the Oilers were unable to stop the swarming attack of the Panthers, failing to hold Florida to less than three goals per game, and only beating them in overtime in Games One and Four. A 5-2 thumping in Game Five led to the Oilers returning to a shaky Stuart Skinner in net for Game Six, who, like the rest of the Oilers, did not have the stamina to keep up with the Panthers’ relentless attack. A 28-save Sergei Bobrovski performance and a Sam Reinhart four goal game sealed the win for the Cats, sending the home crowd at Amerant Bank Arena into a frenzy.

The win marks Florida’s second Stanley Cup in their fourth ever final, following losses in 1996 and 2023, before avoiding a reverse-sweep collapse and defeating the Oilers in 2024. The Panthers saw twenty-one IHLC champions from eight countries (Canada, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Russia, Sweden and the United States) on the roster hoist the Cup, capped by incredible performances from the likes of Bobrovski, Reinhart, captain Alexander Barkov, playoff goals leader and Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, and trade-deadline pickup Brad Marchand, who turned back the clock at age 37 to capture his first Cup since 2011.

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:

Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – IIHF – HHOF – IOC