Oilers fall short of history as Panthers win Game 7 to capture 1st Stanley Cup title
CBC
Connor McDavid produced one of the greatest performances in NHL playoff history.
Despite the gaudy numbers, the Oilers superstar captain couldn't push his team over the top — and the Panthers secured their first Stanley Cup.
Sam Reinhart scored the winner in Game 7 as Florida beat Edmonton 2-1 on a memorable Monday to take the title series 4-3.
Carter Verhaeghe added a goal and assist for the Panthers, who lost in the final in 1996 and again last spring. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves. Head coach Paul Maurice, in his second season with Florida, won the Cup for the first time behind the bench.
Mattias Janmark replied for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots as the championship drought for Canadian-based teams now stands at 31 years dating back to the Montreal Canadiens' victory in 1993.
The Panthers, meanwhile, avoided sports infamy by finally putting Edmonton away after allowing their 3-0 stranglehold in the series to wither away with the Cup on site for a fourth time.
WATCH l Reinhart scores go-ahead goal against Oilers in Game 7:
McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
The Oilers became the 10th team in 211 all-time opportunities in league history to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven series before winning three straight to force a winner-take-all finale.
Edmonton was aiming to become the fifth club to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0 — and just the second in the final, joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs some 82 years ago.
Oilers fans made the long trek to South Florida in the days ahead of an improbable Game 7, painting an orange-and-blue strip across the region before heading out to Amerant Bank Arena's sprawling parking lots in Sunrise to tailgate in the hours ahead of puck drop.
"Let's Go Oilers!" chants started more than 40 minutes before warm-ups as jersey-clad masses assembled along the glass and around the tunnel to the team's locker room. Panthers supporters responded in kind with deafening noise of their own in the minutes before the opening faceoff.
The Panthers snapped a 1-1 tie at 15:11 of the second period after a breathtaking, back-and-forth six minutes of action when Reinhart fired a shot short side on Skinner for his 10th goal of the playoffs.
That breakthrough came after the Oilers had a number of chances at the other end. Edmonton also poured the pressure on Bobrovsky on an earlier power play, including an Evan Bouchard one-timer the veteran netminder — pulled in Game 4 and far from his best in the next two starts — swallowed up to roaring approval.
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