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Florida Panthers Ride Sam Reinhart Hat Trick to Lift Stanley Cup for Second Straight Year

Sam Reinhart was the hero for the Florida Panthers, who dashed the dreams of the Edmonton Oilers once again.

Tyler Lauletta

Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Edmonton Oilers.
Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Edmonton Oilers. / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
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The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions once again.

The Panthers took care of business on home ice on Tuesday night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, shutting out the Edmonton Oilers and cruising to a 5–1 victory to lift the greatest trophy in all of sport.

Leading the way for the Panthers was center Sam Reinhart, who ended the night with four goals en route to the win. Reinhart started the scoring early, first finding the net less than five minutes into the game, pulling off a brilliant steal and diving towards the goal.

From there, it was all Panthers. The Oilers offense would never find the momentum that they had previously tapped into to erase deficits against the Panthers. Reinhart extended the lead to 3–0 late in the second period, after a mistake by Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner left the puck free for the taking in front of the net off of a rebound.

Reinhart would cap off his night with not one but two empty netters to put the game away, with the Panthers ultimately taking a 5–1 victory to lift the Cup.

With four goals on the game, Reinhart made a bit of hockey history. Per the broadcast, he’s just the fourth player in the history of the Stanley Cup Final to score a hat trick in the game his team clinched the trophy, and the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1985 to score seven goals in a Stanley Cup Final.

For Edmonton, it was another year of so close, yet so far away. The Cup is staying in Florida.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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