The Florida Panthers on Monday defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time as Canada’s 31-year title drought continued.
Goals from Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart sealed a 4-3 series victory for the Panthers against an Oilers outfit who had rallied from 3-0 down in the series to force a decisive Game 7.
“I’ve been chasing that for a long time,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It was perfect Florida Panther fashion — nothing’s easy. Nothing’s easy for us.”
Photo: Sam Navarro-USA Today
Edmonton had been bidding to become the first team from Canada since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 to win the NHL championship.
The Oilers were also attempting to become only the second team in NHL history to overturn a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup, but the Panthers — beaten by Las Vegas in last year’s Stanley Cup Final — were in no mood to let victory slip away for a second straight year.
Roared on by their home fans at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers surged into the lead after only 4 minutes, 27 seconds of the opening period.
Right wing Evan Rodrigues smashed a shot from wide on the left and Verhaeghe was on hand in the goalmouth to tip in past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner.
Edmonton silenced the home fans soon afterward with a superb equalizer.
Cody Ceci’s long pass split the Florida defense and was collected by Mattias Janmark, who glided toward the Panthers net and coolly tucked away a finish past Florida’s Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Florida regained the lead in the second period after a breathless passage of play that started with defender Dmitry Kulikov desperately shoveling away the puck on the goal-line to prevent a certain Oilers score.
Florida’s Sam Reinhart gathered, swept up the wing and let rip with a long-range snap shot that flew past Skinner for the score.
Sam Bennett almost made it 3-1 to Florida in the third period only to be denied by a brilliant Skinner save.
As the tension mounted, the Oilers laid siege to the Florida goal and only some last-ditch defending kept Edmonton at bay.
Relieved Panthers star player Rodrigues said Florida had been relaxed going into the decider.
“They say this is the hardest trophy to win in sports, and you can’t imagine how hard it is until you do it, but getting to Game 7, it took pressure off of us, and we did it the hard way ... it was a perfect outcome,” Rodrigues said.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS