Stanley Cup Final: Panthers win Game 7 thriller over Oilers to secure first championship in franchise history

For the first time in history, the Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions.

Florida won a 2-1 Game 7 thriller against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday to secure a 4-3 victory in the Stanley Cup final. The win avoided a historic collapse after the Oilers recovered from a 3–0 series deficit to tie the series at 3–3.

After allowing 18 goals in consecutive Games 4-6 losses, Florida’s defense returned to form Monday night, anchored by a stellar performance from goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky turned back 23 of 24 Edmonton shots, including a late Oilers flurry that threatened to tie the game.

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid secured the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the entire Stanley Cup playoffs despite his team’s loss. He is the sixth player in NHL history to win the award on a losing team and the first since Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 2003.

The Panthers stifled McDavid and the rest of the Oilers defense in Monday’s decisive Game 7.

The first period started well. The Panthers created the game’s first power play on a high-stick penalty from Warren Foegele less than three minutes into the game. It wasn’t immediately converted into a power-play goal, but Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe broke the scoreless tie seconds after it ended.

Just as Edmonton was back to full strength, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues fired a slap shot from the left wall that missed just wide right. But Verhaeghe knocked the puck out of the air with his stick and snuck it past Stewart Skinner for a 1-0 Florida lead.

The goal with 15:33 left in the period gave Florida its first lead in the series since closing Game 3 with a 4-3 victory. It was short-lived.

Oilmen answer

Just 2:17 later, Edmonton’s Mattias Janmark tied the game on a breakaway goal following a sensational assist from Cody Ceci.

After a Florida turnover, Ceci pushed the puck behind the Edmonton goal line and then fired it up ice through three Florida defensemen. Janmark secured the pass in front of the Florida blue line and attacked the net without a defender in his way. He covered Bobrovsky and sent a wrist shot into the left side of the net.

The goal tied the game at 1-1 and piled on a trend that plagued the Panthers as the Oilers rallied to even the series from a 3-0 deficit. The goal was the fifth straight for Edmonton in the breakaway series. It turned out to be the last.

Florida’s defense takes over and sets up the series winner

Edmonton’s chances dried up as the game entered the second period tied 1-1. The Oilers controlled the puck for much of the second, but struggled to convert that control into scoring opportunities. Fifteen minutes into the period, the Panthers turned an Oilers scoring opportunity into one of their own.

Foegele threatened to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead with a shot from the right goal line into a crowded net. But Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov put the puck away, and the Panthers secured him to go on the attack. Center Sam Reinhart capitalized on the opportunity at the other end with a slap shot from the right wing that found the back of the net for a 2-1 lead for the Panthers, sending the eager Florida home crowd into a frenzy.

The second period ended without another goal, and the Panthers entered the third period with history on their side. The teams that led Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final had won 13 times in 14 previous chances. The Panthers had won 25 games in a row when they led after two.

Florida’s defense made sure the Panthers wouldn’t break the trend. A unit that defined the series en route to a 3-0 lead was back in control. The Panthers’ limited looks for Connor McDavid continued to keep All-Star Leon Draisaitl in check.

McDavid’s best scoring opportunity came with 7:05 left in the game. But he lost control of the puck directly in front of the net, and the Oilers were unable to get it past Bobrovsky.

Edmonton turned up the pressure on Bobrovsky in the final minutes of regulation, but couldn’t get the puck past the Florida goalie on several opportunities.

But Edmonton couldn’t break through to tie the game, even after pulling Skinner in the final minutes of the game.

Panthers break through after 30 seasons

The victory marks the first in three trips to the Stanley Cup Final for the Panthers since their inception in 1993-94. They first played for the Cup in 1996, their third year in the NHL, but were swept by the Colorado Avalanche. They returned last season, the first under head coach Paul Maurice, but fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

The Panthers didn’t have any hangover this season after a long playoff run in 2023. They improved by 10 wins and 18 points to win the Atlantic Division title and finish third in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.

In the playoffs, the Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games and the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers in six games to reach the Cup Final against the Oilers. Now they are Stanley Cup champions for the first time in franchise history.