With a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday night, Maurice’s long-held feeling that this group was special proved true. The Panthers had to bounce back in the final game of the season after losing three straight to the Oilers, who became the first team since 1945 to drop the first three games of the Finals and come back to force a seventh game.
Sam Reinhart scored the game-winner, his 10th goal of the playoffs, late in the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves for Florida. Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots for the Oilers.
“It’s amazing,” Reinhart said. “I mean, it certainly hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s incredible.”
When Maurice was hired, he wanted to instill “a style of play that you can play in the playoffs.” He transformed a freewheeling offensive juggernaut into the best defensive team in the NHL; the Panthers have allowed just 2.41 goals per game in the regular season this year, tied for the lowest in the league.
“Postseason hockey is different. We talk about it at training camp, and it’s difficult,” Maurice said after Game 2, won 4-1. “…I think for our veteran core over the last two years, it’s game 204, and we’ve worked very, very hard for 204 games to get there.”
Game 7 was the core’s 209th game under Maurice. It was the last one he needed to achieve his goal. The Panthers had to do it the hard way, overcoming a furious Oilers comeback even in the series, but this group was prepared by Maurice to do things the hard way.
“I’m just happy that we did it and that it took so much effort from everyone,” Verhaeghe said. “This group is so special.”
This close, landslide victory summed up exactly what Maurice had come to teach in Florida. This denied the Oilers their first title since 1990 and again kept the Stanley Cup from a Canadian team; the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 remain the last Canadian club to hoist it.
“I wanted tonight, more than any other game, to look a certain way,” Maurice said. “I wanted to stand behind the bench and watch the first half – we hadn’t been very good in the first half – under the most pressure. We lost three in a row. Your dream is slipping away. I wanted it to look a certain way, for the players to play a certain way, to have conviction and courage.
Early in the first period, for the first time since Game 3, the Panthers took the lead; Edmonton had scored first in Games 4, 5 and 6. Carter Verhaeghe deflected an Evan Rodrigues shot past Skinner’s glove just 4:27 in, easing the tension in the anxious crowd.
But the Oilers, who had success in the breakaway against Bobrovsky earlier in the series, needed just over two minutes to react. A pass from Cody Ceci set up Mattias Janmark, and Janmark needed no further prompting to slip the puck past Bobrovsky and tie the score at 6:44.
With the score level, the tension rose a notch during the rest of the first period and in the second. The teams exchanged pressure sequences, neither managing to break through the other’s defense. Both teams were determined to defend the middle of the ice and keep their opposition on the perimeter. You had to fight for every inch of space on the ice; nothing was given.
The Oilers opened the way for the Panthers in Games 4, 5 and 6 with stretch passes and speed through the neutral zone. The Panthers found their identity in Game 7, defending with much tighter gaps and maintaining firmer control over the flow of the game. Even when Edmonton gained momentum and applied pressure, Florida never panicked – the constant calm brought to mind the first three games of the series, when the Panthers clamped down on the Oilers and gave them little room to breathe .
Edmonton found an opening with a Warren Foegele shot that trickled into the slot with 5:01 left in the second period, and the puck eluded Bobrovsky as it slid into the blue paint. But Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov swept the puck out of harm’s way away from the goal line, and seconds later, Sam Reinhart took his place in the race to put the Panthers back in front at 15:11.
“A crazy, crazy game,” Verhaeghe said. “For (Kulikov) to do that, a huge block, I mean, we had so many guys with huge blocks. It’s incredible.
Florida’s tensest moment of the third period came with just over seven minutes remaining, when a loose puck around the net landed near superstar Connor McDavid for a potential game-tying goal. But McDavid – who was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP – couldn’t get the puck, Zach Hyman’s frantic backhand attempt fell short and Eetu Luostarinen went down behind Bobrovsky to block the opening and end the threat.
After three previous shaky matches, Bobrovsky returned to form at the most critical moment. Even when things got chaotic at times around his crease, the puck never managed to go in, whether Bobrovsky made the save or it was blocked by a player in front of him.
“He’s been our best player all year, all the way through the playoffs,” forward Sam Bennett said. “When we needed him the most, he stood on his head again tonight. It’s simply incredible.
The Panthers were under heavy pressure in the final minutes, but after two years of the team being ready to win games with unwavering defense and commitment to each other, hanging on in the final minutes of the game 7 to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup was entirely fitting. .
The final seconds ticked away as Florida slammed the puck against the wall, and it took a moment after the horn sounded for the Panthers to let go and begin their celebration. It was a tough and determined finish for a determined and determined team, something that would not be denied after failing last season.
Florida did it the hard way, just like Maurice did when he arrived two years ago.
“This is our group. We’ve always done it the hard way,” Bennett said. “We’ve always done the hard things. I don’t think that makes it any nicer, but it’s just not surprising that this group did it the hardest way possible.