NHL
Stanley
Cup Final
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers learned their lesson from last year.
After needing four cracks to eliminate the Edmonton Oilers last season, the Panthers’ reign continued Tuesday night when they thoroughly dominated Game 6 en route to a 5-1 victory to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
It was another clinic by the Panthers, who easily beat Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers in three of their four wins in the series.
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The Panthers became the seventh franchise in NHL history to win each of their first two Stanley Cups on home ice. The Oilers became the first team to lose back-to-back in the Stanley Cup Final since the 1977 and 1978 Boston Bruins under Don Cherry.
Sam Reinhart, who buried the winning goal last June, tied a Stanley Cup Final record with four goals (two empty-netters), including the first playoff hat trick in Panthers history.
Aleksander Barkov, the first European to captain multiple Stanley Cup champions, had two assists, and Carter Verhaeghe assisted on each of Reinhart’s last three goals.
SAM REINHART COMPLETES THE HAT TRICK WITH AN EMPTY-NETTER 🎩🎩🎩 pic.twitter.com/O0lEco4wvz
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 18, 2025
Matthew Tkachuk, who tied for the team lead with 23 points, ended up scoring the Cup-clinching goal in the first period. Had Vasily Podkolzin not ruined Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout in the final minutes, Reinhart would have become the first player in NHL history to score Cup-clinching goals against the same opponent.
The Panthers are the second team in NHL history to have three players score five-plus goals in the same Stanley Cup Final (Reinhart, Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett). The only other occasion was by Alex Delvecchio, Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay with the 1955 Detroit Red Wings.
Bobrovsky made 28 saves for his 32nd playoff win in the past two years.
The reality is that even though the Oilers won two games in overtime on goals by Draisaitl, this series wasn’t close. The Panthers led for 255 minutes, 49 seconds in the series, the longest time leading by any team in Stanley Cup Final history.
Here are some takeaways from Tuesday night:
If ever there was a team that needed to score first, it was the Oilers. They led for just under 34 minutes in the series, and the Panthers entered with an all-time record of 10-0 when scoring first in a potential elimination game (6-0 at home).
Instead, despite a strong start and a near-early goal by Evander Kane, Reinhart — who scored the Cup-clinching goal for Florida a year ago — scored on an incredible individual effort after an Oilers turnover at the blue line.
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Mattias Ekholm, coming off a horrible Game 5, threw a saucer pass into Evan Bouchard’s shins as he was exiting the zone along the right wing boards. Bouchard then gained possession, but he was pressured by Reinhart and coughed up the puck. Reinhart then cut to the inside to school Ekholm and scored while being tripped to the ice by Bouchard for a 1-0 lead just 4:36 into the game. It was Reinhart’s eighth goal of the playoffs.
SAM REINHART STRIKES FIRST FOR FLORIDA IN GAME 6 🚨 #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/nDnzDJBdec
— NHL (@NHL) June 18, 2025
Tkachuk scored in the final minute of the period. The final tally? The Oilers were outscored 13-4 in the first period in the series and 9-0 in the past four first periods.
The two Oilers superstars are known for excelling when the spotlight is the brightest.
McDavid entered Game 6 having appeared in 14 elimination contests in his career and had eight goals and 23 points on his resume. Draisaitl wasn’t far off with three goals and 19 points.
Tuesday wasn’t one of those banner nights. McDavid was held pointless, and Draisaitl managed only a secondary assist on Podkolzin’s goal. Both generated little offensively and were minus-4, albeit with two goals against coming in empty-net situations.
McDavid’s best opportunity to get on the scoreboard was three minutes into the second period when he set up Corey Perry on a two-on-one. Perry received the pass in tight and slid his shot wide.
Draisaitl, meanwhile, didn’t have a shot attempt in the game. That’s a tough way for the Rocket Richard Trophy winner, who also finished second in goals in the playoffs with 11, to go out.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch loaded his top line with McDavid and Draisaitl almost immediately after Reinhart opened the scoring in the first period, leaving a banged-up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to center the second trio.
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“We’re almost fully committed to, because we’re chasing, having those two together,” Knoblauch said after the game.
Without Zach Hyman, who missed the series with a dislocated wrist, Knoblauch rotated through a cast of wingers to fill out that first grouping. Perry was mostly used, although Podkolzin, Jeff Skinner and Evander Kane all got looks there.
Overall, it was an impressive postseason for McDavid and Draisaitl. They co-led the scoring race with 33 points apiece. Draisaitl had 8 points in the final, whereas McDavid had 7.
Nothing much in Game 6, though, and that’s going to stick with them all summer — even if Ekholm doesn’t think it necessarily should.
“I don’t think that’s a fair picture to paint,” he said. “I don’t think us as D-men were as good as we needed to be. The goaltenders probably think that they could have been a little bit better. It’s a team thing. It’s a team sport. If you don’t have everybody firing on all cylinders, it’s hard to win a Stanley Cup. That’s just a matter of fact.
“We win as a team, and we lose as a team.”
You want to identify a couple of unsung heroes from this Cup run? Start with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
The Panthers’ third-liners, dubbed the “Finnish Phenoms” by Marchand, finished the playoffs with 37 points combined.
They were responsible for all of the legwork on Tkachuk’s dagger of a goal with 47 seconds left in the first period. Lundell was back at his own blue line in defensive posture when he stole the puck from Bouchard, which got Luostarinen started up ice. He gained the offensive zone and found Tkachuk slicing through the middle to make it 2-0 Panthers.
MATTHEW TKACHUK GIVES THE CATS A 2-0 LEAD IN THE FINAL MINUTE OF THE FIRST! 👀 #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/KwoDu8wdl7
— NHL (@NHL) June 18, 2025
Luostarinen had 8 points during last year’s playoffs and finished with 19 this time around, all of them recorded at even strength. Lundell registered 18 points after having 17 a year ago.
More importantly, they were only on the ice for eight and seven goals against at five-on-five during the entire playoffs.
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Another year, another loss in the Stanley Cup Final for Perry. Make it five in the last six seasons.
Perry’s run of championship-round futility began in 2020 with the Dallas Stars. He then suffered losses in 2021 (Montreal Canadiens) and 2022 (Tampa Bay Lightning) before dropping back-to-back Final series with the Oilers.
At least he has his 2007 title with the Anaheim Ducks.
Perry was one of the Oilers’ better players on this run and often appeared in the top six with McDavid and/or Draisaitl, as he did with both of them Tuesday. He recorded 10 goals and 14 points in 22 games, building off an impressive campaign that saw him record 19 goals and 30 points in 81 contests.
The 40-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and wants to continue his NHL career. The Oilers should consider bringing him back at the right price given how well he played this season. He carried a $1.15 million cap hit and made another $250,000 in performance bonuses.
Despite the loss, it was a milestone night for Perry. He appeared in his 237th postseason game to move ahead of former Oiler Mark Messier and into fourth place on the all-time NHL list. Ahead of him are only Chris Chelios (266 games), Nicklas Lidstrom (263 games) and Patrick Roy (247 games).
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
