After what was one of the most dramatic finishes in Stanley Cup history, the Florida Panthers staved off a 3-0 comeback from the Edmonton Oilers to secure the first championship in franchise history.
It was the third time in four years that the Stanley Cup Playoffs featured at least four Game 7s. However, no team had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to force a Game 7 in the Finals since 1945.
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Game 7 marked the end of the 2023-24 season 258 days after the opening face-off, in the 1,400th game of the season, following 22,500-plus miles traveled in the Stanley Cup Finals alone.
The Panthers came out swinging in the first three games, cruising to a 3-0 series lead and 11 goals to the four goals Edmonton scored in those games. However, the Oilers came back strong, going on their own three-game win streak. They would dominate the next three contests, going up 18 goals to the Panthers five. In the end, it wouldn’t matter, as the Panther fought strong in game seven to secure their first Stanley Cup.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky held strong, surrendering only one goal in the final game of this exciting series. Even in the third period, he would lose his stick, falling to the ground — but someone managed to gain his composure and not allow any goals to slip through.
The Panthers joined the 2011 Vancouver Canucks as the only teams in history to play nine potential series-clinching games in one year. Sergei Bobrovsky joined longtime Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo, now the team’s special advisor to the general manager, as the second netminder to play in nine potential clinchers in one playoff year.
It marked the third time a team from the Miami metropolitan area played a Game 7 in a championship round in the NBA, MLB, or NHL. The Florida Marlins defeated Cleveland in the 1997 World Series and the Miami Heat ousted San Antonio in the 2013 NBA Finals.
Florida’s Paul Maurice is 5-for-5 in Game 7s in his NHL head coaching career, and became the second in NHL history to earn wins in each of his first five, joining former OHL teammate and colleague Peter DeBoer (8-0). Maurice worked his 1,985th career NHL game (1,848 regular season & 137 playoffs), more than any head coach before winning his first Cup.
The Panthers are the 24th different NHL franchise to win the Stanley Cup and the 15th to claim their first championship on home ice. The last team to win a Cup in Game 7 on home ice was the Carolina Hurricanes, in 2006 against the Edmonton Oilers.
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