NHL: Draisaitl’s dream burst: Panthers again Stanley Cup winner

The Florida Panthers defended their NHL title and let the Stanley Cup dreams of Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers burst. In the sixth game of the final series, the Panthers won the necessary fourth victory in front of their own spectators in Florida with a 5: 1 (2: 0, 1: 0, 2: 1). Ice hockey player Nico Sturm is now a two-time Stanley Cup winner, but was not in the active squad in any game of the final series. The main actor of the evening was Sam Reinhart with four goals for the Panthers.

The Panthers had already prevailed against the Oilers last season. A year ago, the team from Flordia won the first three games, but then had to take a seventh game after three defeats in series. In Sunrise ahead of Miami’s gates, a 2-1 decided the finals and caused huge grief at the Oilers about Draisaitl and superstar Connor McDavid. This time, too, the ice rink in Florida was the place of bitter disappointment with the Canadians and exuberant jubilation at the Panthers.

Panthers meet and play almost flawlessly

Three days after the 5-2 in Edmonton, the Panthers took control early in the sixth game of the series and led 2-0 after the first third. Reinhart scored the second goal in the fifth minute to 1: 0, 47 seconds before the siren. A dropout of Oilers goalkeeper Stuart Skinner enabled Reinhart his second goal. The Panthers allowed themselves barely visible mistakes and again struck ice cold when the Oilers took their goalkeeper off the ice seven minutes before the end and tried it with six field players: 26 seconds later Reinhart scored into the empty goal for the 4-0. When he marked his fourth goal of the day at 5-0, the game was already decided, the gate of Wassili Podkolsin was cosmetics of results.