Florida Panthers Repeat as Stanley Cup Champions

The story of the night was Sam Reinhart as he put together a four-goal performance after being named as one of the first to Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics. Reinahrt got his first four goals in the first period, where he opened the scoring.

At the 4:36 mark of the first period, he made it 1-0 Panthers. This helped settle the Panthers down somewhat as the Oilers came out playing desperate hockey. However, it was the culture changer that allowed the Panthers to settle into their game.

Matthew Tkachuk made it 2-0 late in the first period with 46.5 seconds left. This gave the Panthers confidence to play their game of simple hockey the rest of the way. It is pretty remarkable what Tkachuk is doing in this series and these playoffs, considering he wasn’t sure he could play to begin the playoffs. He suffered an injury at the Four Nations Faceoff during the first Canada-USA game. He wasn’t right the rest of the tournament and missed the rest of the regular season.

For a guy who didn’t know for sure until Game 1 of Round 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and even then, there was a 50 percent chance he wasn’t going to play for the Panthers in the playoffs, he has gotten better as each series has gone along. Tkachuk is dealing with a lower-body injury and can barely skate, but he is averaging a point per game with 23 points (eight goals and 15 assists) in 23 games.

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With that late goal in the second period, Tkachuk has up to seven points in the series, including three goals. Remember, he almost had a hat trick in Game 4. So you knew Tkachuk was going to back up his talk from Monday when he said his team would match the desperation level of the Oilers. He knew the fourth win was the toughest to get.

Another notable aspect of the game was Sergei Bobrovsky’s play. He was locked in since warmups, where he stayed out a lot longer than usual. He left the ice with about 20 seconds left as he wanted the work, and it paid off. He made 10 stops in the first period, including a couple of big stops on Evan Bouchard, where he made a right pad save and Connor McDavid, who was coming across the ice.

As was pointed out, Bobrovsky was being aggressive on shooters. He made a big sliding play across to throw Corey Perry off as he received a pass from McDavid. That aggressiveness forced Perry to puck to the outside of the net. Bobrovsky also knew when to come out and play the puck, getting it out of the zone. All night, he was on top of his crease and was reading the play so well.

Bobrovsky was dialled in on every shot. His saves gave his team the confidence to transition from defence to offence. In the second period, Reinhart scored his second of the game after Aleksander Barkov protected the puck in the Edmonton zone. That goal by Reinhart was his fifth goal in four games and his eighth point over that stretch.

However, he was not done, as he added two empty-net goals in the third period to secure his 10th and 11th goals of the playoffs. He was also the first player since Maurice Richard to score four goals in a Stanley Cup Final game.

Those goals by Reinhart allow the Panthers to celebrate their Stanley Cup victory early. Even though Edmonton added a goal late, the game was over by then. The countdown was on as fans got to see their team win the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year.

Aleksander Barkov received the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Gary Bettman as the celebration was on. And to speak of what a team, they handed off the Stanley Cup to the first-time winner first. That is a definition of a team. The Conn Smythe Trophy for the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs was awarded to Sam Bennett as he led all players with 15 goals.

The Florida Panthers improved their ability to close out series, needing only one elimination this time around. Please make no mistake about it; the Panthers did not want to return to Edmonton. They proved yet again that they are the standard by which hockey is played in the NHL.