The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in their franchise history.
Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored for the Panthers, either side of Mattias Janmark’s effort, to secure a 2-1 victory and 4-3 series win.
Edmonton trailed 3-0 in the series, but retaliated to force a deciding match.
“I’ve been chasing that for a long time,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice.
“It was perfect Florida Panther fashion – nothing’s easy. Nothing’s easy for us.”
The Oilers had hopes of becoming only the second team in NHL history to overturn a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup.
The Panthers held the home advantage for the seventh and final match in the series and it took just four minutes and 27 seconds for Verhaeghe to score.
The Canadian forward Evan Rodrigues’ shot to tip beyond Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner. Janmark equalised for the guests when taking Cody Ceci’s pass before coolly finishing.
Reinhart delivered the winner in the second period, moments after Edmonton watched an attempt sent off the goal line.
“They say this is the hardest trophy to win in sports, and you can’t imagine how hard it is, until you do it,” Rodrigues said.
“But getting to game seven, it took pressure off of us, and we did it the hard way. But it was a perfect outcome.”
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