Panthers oust Rangers, return to Stanley Cup Final
The Florida Panthers defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 on Saturday to close out their third-round series and advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive season.
Florida will play the winner of the Edmonton Oilers-Dallas Stars series with a chance to win its first championship in franchise history. The Oilers are currently ahead 3-2.
"It's amazing, it's tough to describe right now," captain Aleksander Barkov told Sportsnet. "So proud of the guys, but we all know the job is not finished. We still want to get that big prize and work really hard for it."
The Panthers' Sam Bennett opened the scoring Saturday in the final minute of the first period. Vladimir Tarasenko added an insurance marker midway through the final frame before Artemi Panarin notched his first goal of the series to bring the Rangers within a goal.
Game 6 was the fifth consecutive one-goal contest between the teams, but Florida was the superior team over the series by most metrics. The Panthers controlled 57.23% of shot attempts, 60.85% of scoring chances, and 62.21% of expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Igor Shesterkin was the primary reason New York put up a fight, as the 2022 Vezina Trophy winner posted a .930 save percentage in the series. The Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy with 114 points, but the league's top regular-season team hasn't won the Stanley Cup since the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.
The Panthers are the first team to return to the Stanley Cup Final the year after losing since the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, who won in their second attempt.
"It's so special. It's just so much buy-in, so much hard work. So much commitment to playing the right way," winger Matthew Tkachuk told Sportsnet.
"Everybody who's new this year has been awesome, and the returning guys really, really came back with this on their mind. We wanted to get back to this moment, and we're here. Hopefully, we can keep this thing going."
Florida will now have a week off, with Game 1 of the final scheduled for June 8. The Panthers will have home-ice advantage if Edmonton advances but will start on the road if Dallas prevails.