6/17/2025
SUNRISE, FLA
The Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup Champions in 2025 thanks to a four goal showing from Sam Reinhart in a 5-1 win in Game 6 against the Edmonton Oilers.
Sam Bennett won the Conn Smythe as Playoff MVP for Florida.
Sam Reinhart four times lit the lamp and Matthew Tkachuk added another goal for the Panthers. Vasily Podkolzin scored the lone goal for the Oilers.
The Panthers were coming off a game 5, 5-2 win where Brad Marchand scored a pair of goals.
Edmonton started Stuart Skinner in net after Calvin Pickard started game 5.
Sam Reinhart opened the scoring after stealing the puck from the Oilers’ Evan Bouchard and around Mattias Ekholm for the goal. Reinhart scored the eventual game winning goal in last year’s Stanley Cup Final. The former Sabre’s goal at 4:36 put the Panthers in front. Late in the period, Matthew Tkachuk scored from the high slot at 19:13 to give Florida a 2-0.
In the second period, Aleksander Barkov found Sam Reinhart off a deflection to put the Panthers up 3-0. The goal at 17:31 put Florida in command with the Cup in sight.
With seven minutes left in the game, Edmonton pulled Stuart Skinner for the extra attacker. Sam Reinhart completed a hat trick at 13:26 into the third period. He was far from done. Reinhart deposited another empty netter at 14:55. The four goals in a Cup clinching game is the most since Maurice Richard scored four goals in Montreal’s Cup clinching win against the Boston Bruins in 1957.
Vasily Podkolzin scored at 15:18 to break the shutout for the Oilers.
As the final seconds ticked away with the Panthers leading 5-1, Gustav Forsling melted the final seconds, and the bench emptied dogpiling on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for the second consecutive year. The Florida Panthers were Stanley Cup Champions again.
Sam Bennett with 15 goals and sevens assists in the playoffs was awarded the Conn Smythe for Playoffs MVP. The Panther forward set a playoff record for most road goals with 13.
Sam Reinhart when reacting over the win said, “this is as good as the first one…when we won this year we weren’t thinking about the next one.”
Matthew Tkachuk admitted postgame with TNT he tore his adductor muscle off the bone and battled a hernia. Tkachuk admitted, “We got to be a dynasty now…this never gets old.”
The Panthers’ repeat Stanley Cup Championship is their second Stanley Cup in team history. Florida becomes the first team to repeat since the Pittsburgh Penguins won the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cups. For their first 28 seasons, Florida had only won four playoff series. Since then, the Panthers have won a remarkable 10 playoff series and made three Stanley Cup Finals.
Paradise has arrived in Sunrise, the Cats roar atop of the mountain with Lord Stanley again.
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