Greg Cote: Brad Marchand leads Panthers to one win from 2nd Stanley Cup

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on Jun 14, 2025

Published in Hockey

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The Florida Panthers are one victory away from a second consecutive Stanley Cup championship.

And they are one loss away from a winner-take-all Game 7 in Edmonton.

This is the beauty and the anxiety of a best-of-7 series. Being up 3-2 — as the Panthers are with Saturday night’s 5-2 road triumph — leaves a Florida fan both planning for another championship celebration and and superstitiously afraid to so.

Fans on both sides of the border can agree on this: Festooned by three overtime games, it’s been quite a sensational Final, one not done yet, but nearing its crescendo.

“This has been a pretty incredible one,” said Marchand of this Final. “One of the tightest series I think anyone has ever seen. Most exciting. The talent level. The back and forth. Nerve-wracking at times. We’re all big hockey fans. It makes you realize why you love the game so much and also why this trophy is the hardest one go win.”

Marchand, 37-year-old magician, a Panther for just a few months, was the hero again in Game 5 with his team’s first and third goals.

It means Florida on Tuesday can win its first-ever Stanley Cup on home ice, after winning its maiden crown last year in a Game 7 at Edmonton. A loss Tuesday would reprise a Game 7 in Edmonton on Friday.

The Cats led 1-0 in mid-first period (9:12 in) on a Marchand left-handed snap-shot goal off a breakaway from a center-ice faceoff. His fifth Final goal made him only the second to do that in a career since the 1960s. This also was the fourth straight game the Cats have scored first.

Panthers were up 2-0 1:54 before the end of the first — seconds after killing an Edmonton power play — on Sam Bennett’s snap shot off a rebound from a Matthew Tkachuk shot. Bennett’s 15th postseason goal and 13th on the road both are NHL playoff records.

Marchand, Bennett and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in the first period only feathered their standing as Cats’ favorites for the Conn Smythe trophy as NHL playoff MVP.

The Cats killed a third straight Oilers power play in the second, albeit with good fortune, as a Connor McDavid shot clanged off the goalpost.

Marchand scored again for a 3-1 lead five minutes into the third period with a brilliant back and forth slalom past Oilers defenseman Jake Walman that all but left Walman corkscrewed into the ice. Marchand thus became the first NHL player since 1988 with six goals in a Stanley Cup Final — the Conn Smythe all but his.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” said a mic’d up Matthew Tkachuk on the bench as Marchand scored again.

Edmonton drew within 3-1 on the first goal of the Final from McDavid, briefly enlivening the home crowd.

Briefly.

It was 4-1 shortly thereafter on Sam Reinhart’s finish of a gorgeous pass from Aleksander Barkov, Reinhart’s third straight game with a goal.

Edmonton drew within 4-2 with 3:13 left but hadn’t the time for a miracle. Florida cashed the final goal on an Eetu Luostarinen empty-netter late.

Florida is now 10-3 in this postseason, outscoring opponents by 61-31. At home the Cats have been only 5-4 by a 28-24 margin, but they’ll have mighty incentive to improve those numbers in Game 6.

The Panthers are ready for a fight.

“Everybody is defending, playing hard physically. A lot of fun to play in,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “We like to grind. We have a grindy game.”

Tuesday night, the Stanley Cup trophy will be in the Panthers’ rink.

We’ll see if they can keep it at home.