Panthers thrash Oilers to retain Stanley Cup
Sam Reinhart scored four goals to help the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 and retain the Stanley Cup.The Panthers wrapped up the best-of-seven series with a game to spare - winning 4-2 - on home ice at the Amerant Bank Arena.It was a repeat of last year's finals, when Florida claimed the Stanley Cup for the first time in their franchise history with a 4-3 series win."It's not easy coming back, and you know how hard it is to do," Reinhart said on the difficulty of retaining the title."Sometimes that benefits you, and sometimes it doesn't. We just stuck with it. A lot has to go your way to be standing here at the end, and we were up for the task again."
Reinhart is the first player to score four goals in a Stanley Cup final since Montreal Canadiens' Maurice Richard in 1957.It took Reinhart four minutes and 36 seconds to open the scoring and the Panthers never looked back.Matthew Tkachuk, who said after the game he had been playing with a torn adductor muscle and a hernia, doubled Florida's lead by the end of the first quarter before Reinhart scored a further three unanswered.Edmonton's Vasily Podkolzin grabbed a consolation for the five-time Stanley Cup winners, but their last triumph in the competition came in 1989-90."We're a dynasty," Tkachuk said. "I can't believe this is what has happened... It just shows how unbelievable the group is, the depth."The culture down here is very, very unique. Hopefully, we can do it again."
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