CNN
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The Florida Panthers have just one win after being named NHL champion for the second consecutive season after a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final Night at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
The pivotal victory comes 48 hours after the Panthers let the three-goal lead off on home ice Thursday.
The Panthers’ push to the back-to-back championship continued to be triggered by the 37-year-old trade deadline acquisition Brad Marchand, scoring a pair of goals on Saturday night, earning a total of six tallys in five games in the final.
As the series enters Game 5 2-2, the victory gives the winner a clear advantage to advance. According to the NHL, teams that won the Stanley Cup final tied up in their fifth match had a 73% chance of winning the championship.
When each team started off to a fast start, the Panthers were the first to find the backstage of the net. Marchand faced the puck off on centre ice and split the pair of Oilers defenders to give Florida a 1-0 lead before passing Edmonton goalkeeper Calvin Picard and slotting the puck.
With two minutes remaining in the first period, Edmonton handed over the puck in the neutral zone, and Florida capitalised the blink of an eye as Sam Bennett scored the fifth goal of the final, taking the Panthers for a 2-0 lead towards the first break. Bennett leads all players with 15 goals in the 2025 postseason.
After a scoreless second period, the action was brought back to the third period as the Panthers continued their fight with the Oilers. Again, Merchant scored a grand Florida goal on a 1-1 breakaway to lead the Panthers 3-0, bringing a total of 10 goals this year’s playoffs.
In his 16th NHL season, Merchand puts his name next to the NHL’s greatest ever. He became the first player since Mario Lemiux scored more than five goals in two different Stanley Cup final series. Merchand’s scores earned him sixth on the list of most goals scored in the finals during the expansion era.
Just two minutes after Merchand’s magical goal, Edmonton finally got on the scoreboard, where Oilers’ superstar Conor McDavid scored from a tough angle, reducing the Panthers’ advantage to 3-1.
The Panthers responded less than a minute as Sam Reinhart fired Lellister through traffic and recovered Florida cushion 4-1.
At the end of the period when the match was out of reach, Edmonton’s Corey Perry scored, but Florida once again answered with an empty net goal from Eetu Luostarinen to maintain a three-goal victory margin.
The Best-of Seven series now moves 2,500 miles to South Florida, and the Panthers are the first team to lift the Stanley Cup in the back-to-back season as the Tampa Bay Lightning achieved feats in 2020 and 2021.
If Edmonton wants to be the first Canadian team to win a championship since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, he will have to find two Florida destruction crews and Bennett’s counter.
Marchand and Bennett are the first teammates to score at least five goals in the Stanley Cup final in more than 50 years.
Florida will have the opportunity to close the series at home in Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida on Tuesday.