The Florida Panthers won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history Monday night, narrowly avoiding a historic collapse in the finals.
Their 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Edmonton Oilers gave them a 4-3 series victory after they had lost the previous three games to blow a 3-0 lead.
A first-period goal by Carter Verhaeghe and a game-winning second-period goal by Sam Reinhart spelled the difference.
An emotional alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk said on the ice after the game that he didn’t believe what his team had accomplished.
“It’s not a dream. It’s reality. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” he said slowly.
The Panthers victory also was a career capper for coach Paul Maurice, who is the fourth-winningest coach in league history but had never won a title.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov accepted the Stanley Cup and became the first Finnish-born player to be handed the oldest trophy in major North American sport by the league commissioner. His symbolic first handoff was to the Panthers’ dominant goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 23 saves Monday to rebound from three straight poor performances.
The Conn-Smythe Trophy, presented to the playoffs MVP, was awarded after the game to a player on the losing team — the Oilers’ Connor McDavid.
Mr. McDavid not only had led the playoffs in points for this year (42 — 8 goals, 34 assists) but the assist figure broke the record of Oilers legend Wayne Gretzky.
The trophy traditionally, though need not, go to a player on the winning team. He was not on the ice to accept it.
The Panthers’ victory also extended a 30-year losing streak in hockey-mad Canada. Though Canadian players are by far the largest contingent in the league, no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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