SUNRISE, Florida (AP) When time ran out, the Prince of Wales Trophy was taken onto the ice, to the joy of an arena full of Florida Panthers fans, and dozens of players and staffers raced over to pose with it. Last year, the Panthers touched the trophy. This year, they did not. The message was plain. They just want one trophy: the Stanley Cup.
For the second year in a row, they have a shot at hockey’s pinnacle award. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots, Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and the Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final after defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 on Saturday night.
Bennett remarked, “We touched it last year and it didn’t work for us,” in reference to the trophy that was given to the winners of the Eastern Conference. “Well, we decided to try something new this year.”
After losing to Vegas in the Cup final the previous season, the Panthers won the East title series in six games. The Cup series between Florida and either Edmonton or Dallas is scheduled to begin on June 8.
The Rangers, who held a 2-1 lead in the series, lost three straight games and lost their season as a result. Artemi Panarin scored with 1:40 remaining, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 32 saves.
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It was New York’s longest losing run since mid-January and guarantees that the team with the best regular season record in the NHL will not win the Stanley Cup for the eleventh year in a row.
“Hey, our guys battled this season,” stated Peter Laviolette, the coach of the Rangers. They immediately embraced the idea. It’s disheartening because, when you start something like this, you don’t finish it with three or five playoff victories. You put in the effort to finish it.
Game 1 of the championship round will take place in Florida if Edmonton, which is leading the West final 3-2, makes it further. The Stars will host the championship series if Dallas wins the Western Conference.
On Sunday, the Oilers can wrap up the series. Florida will compete in its third Stanley Cup game. The Panthers last season suffered a 4-1 loss to Vegas after being swept by Colorado in 1996.
Paul Maurice, the coach of the Panthers, has also made it to the final three times; he lost with Carolina in 2002 and Florida in the previous year. Perhaps for them both, the third time really is the charm.
“I enjoy the game because I realize I’m not that important here,” Maurice, who is 57 years old and attempting to become the second-oldest coach to win a Stanley Cup (Bruce Cassidy was 58 when Vegas awarded him his first title last year), remarked.
And I really do mean that. “Don’t be so humble, you’re not that good,” is a nice quote. The players are to blame. They don’t need me when they leave, either.
With Florida’s victory, the Sunshine State’s team has now won the Eastern Conference five times in a row; Tampa Bay won the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and Florida has now made it three straight.
In addition, the Panthers are currently the 15th NHL team still in play to have advanced to the Stanley Cup Final two times in a row. For the second straight year, the Panthers also defeated the team that finished first in the regular season, the Presidents’ Trophy winner. Florida surprised Boston in Round 1 of the previous season by winning Game 7 away from home.
This time, the Rangers were defeated by Florida, who made history by being the first team to eliminate the top overall seed in back-to-back seasons since Pittsburgh did so against Washington in 2016 and 2017.
Rangers center Mika Zibanejad stated, “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” “I believed we made an effort to discard everything. Today, it simply wasn’t sufficient. And it appears that Bobrovsky enjoys tearing down No. 1.
For the third time in six years, he was in goal to defeat the team with the best overall seed—the Rangers this year, the Bruins the previous year, and Tampa Bay in 2019 while he was in Columbus. The Rangers captain, Jacob Trouba, stated, “We were right there.” “We simply couldn’t finish.”
In the last minute of the first period, Bennett set the score when he passed the puck to Evan Rodrigues, got it back, and one-timed a shot into the top right corner of the net, past Shesterkin’s glove.
Bennett scored a goal in three consecutive games, matching his greatest stretch of the season and his first in the postseason.
With five minutes remaining in the second period, Bennett had a takeaway close to the blue line that set up a fantastic opportunity for Matthew Tkachuk, who skated down the slot with only Shesterkin in front of him.
Shesterkin produced a toe save, but before Tkachuk could get much of a shot, Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller swung around from behind and struck him in the wrist with his stick. Midway through the third, Tarasenko found himself alone on the net for an easy goal that made it 2-0 and started the countdown.
The Rangers made a loud exit. With 2:24 remaining, Shesterkin took the bench, and 44 seconds later, Panarin scored, halving Florida’s lead. However, Florida eliminated the remaining time, and thus the festivity commenced.