Florida Panthers win second consecutive Stanley Cup with 5-1 win over Oilers

The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season, doing so on home ice in Game 6 with a clinical 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

Strong starts for Florida have been the theme in this series, as the Panthers had outscored the Oilers 12-3 in the first period through the first five games of the series. That did not change this time around, as Sam Reinhart scored less than five minutes into the game, and just as it seemed like Edmonton was going to escape the period with only one goal against for the first time this series, Matthew Tkachuk added to the lead with 47 seconds left in the frame, and it was 2-0 Florida going into the dressing room.

It was a better second period for the Oilers, but not by much. The two teams were even in shots in both periods, but the Panthers had the better chances, and once again, they were the only team to score in the second, as Reinhart got on the board again to make it 3-0.

And that felt about it for this game. The Oilers struggled to beat Bobrovsky for most of the third period, and when they pulled the goalie with under seven minutes left, it didn’t take long for Reinhart to bury the game with his hat trick goal. He got another empty net goal shortly after for his fourth of the game, and while Vasily Podkolzin did get one back for Edmonton, that was all for the season, with the Panthers winning the Cup with a 5-1 win.

With the win, the Panthers win the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history, and for the second consecutive season. However, they do enter the offseason with a few players’ futures with the team up in the air, as key contributors like Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and Nate Schmidt are unrestricted free agents with around $19 million in cap space to work with.

Meanwhile Connor McDavid and the Oilers fall short of a Stanley Cup yet again, losing both matchups against the Panthers. They don’t have nearly as many key UFAs, with the biggest being the likes of Corey Perry, Connor Brown and John Klingberg, but they do have Evan Bouchard as a restricted free agent, with just under $12 million in cap space.