Florida Panthers win their first Stanley Cup, surviving Oilers’ unlikely comeback attempt

Canada will have to wait at least another year before a club north of the border can hoist the Stanley Cup.

Sam Reinhart’s late second-period goal lifted the Florida Panthers to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL finals on Monday, June 24, helping the home team win its first title and denying Canadian hockey fans the prized trophy’s long-awaited return north.

Reinhart’s goal came moments after Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov cleared a puck that was behind goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and was precariously sliding in the crease.

That desperation clearance launched a Panthers rush, culminating in Reinhart’s low wrister from the circle that beat Oilers goaltender and Edmonton native Stuart Skinner.

Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, the son of American hockey great Keith Tkachuk, recalled walking out of his house Monday afternoon with his dad and brother Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators wishing him well.

“All I wanted to do was to win it, not only for everybody out here, but I really wanted to win it for those two especially,” an emotional Matthew Tkachuk told ABC/ESPN.

As his players paraded with the Stanley Cup, veteran Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he was thinking about loved ones in and around Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, who supported him over the years.

“Hey dad, your name’s going up [on the Stanley Cup] with your heroes, [Jean] Béliveau, [Maurice] Richard, [Gordie] Howe, [Ted] Lindsay, Maurice,” Maurice told Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet.

Before going to South Florida, Maurice spent parts of nine seasons behind the Winnipeg Jets bench. Even as he enjoyed the view from pro hockey’s mountain top, Maurice shouted out his old co-workers in Manitoba.

“I’m just lucky,” he said. “If I could have one thing more it’d be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.”

Edmonton had been seeking to become only the fifth team in NHL history to rally from a 3-0 series deficit when they took the ice at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

Just 1 1/2 weeks ago, the Panthers appeared invincible, following their 4-3 victory at Edmonton in Game 3, giving them a 3-0 series lead.

The high-power Oilers, who scored the fourth-most goals in hockey this past regular season, had only put four pucks past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in those first three games.

But those first three contests looked nothing like Games 4, 5 and 6 as Edmonton ran roughshod over Florida, scoring 18 to force Monday night’s decisive game.

Four teams had rallied from a 3-0 hole to win a best-of-7 playoff series in NHL history: The Toronto Maple Leafs (1942), New York Islanders (1975), Philadelphia Flyers (2010) and Los Angeles Kings (2014). The Leafs’ feat came in that year’s Stanley Cup finals

But as the Panthers showed on Monday, any momentum gained from wins in Games 4-6 often ends when the puck drops in Game 7. While four teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit, five other 0-3 squads had forced a Game 7 only to lose the winner-take-all contest.

Edmonton is now the sixth team to make such a valiant effort that fell just short.

The Detroit Red Wings (2011, 1945), Chicago Blackhawks (2011), the Islanders (1975) and New York Rangers (1939) all gallantly fought back before dropping a Game 7. The 1975 Islanders pulled the 3-0 miracle in a quarterfinal series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and nearly pulled off the same feat in the semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers before falling in Game 7.

The Panthers win also kept alive a three-decade-long string of Canadian teams failing to win the Stanley Cup, a feat last accomplished in 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens won it all.

A Canadian team has now made the Stanley Cup final seven times since the 1993 Habs, only to fall short against a U.S.-based club.

Before hoisting the cup on Monday, Florida came close to lifting Lord Stanley’s famed chalice last year when the Vegas Golden Knights won it all and in 1996 when the Panthers fell to the Colorado Avalanche.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com