Top moments of season for Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second straight season with a 5-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.

Florida was 16-7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after going 47-31-4 to finish third in the Atlantic Division. They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the first round, the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games in the second round and the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference Final.

Unlike last season, when they had a 3-0 series lead in the Cup Final against Edmonton before winning in seven games, Florida was able to clinch in their first chance this season.

Here are some of the highlights for the Panthers on the road to the Stanley Cup:

BEST MOMENT: Winning the Stanley Cup again on home ice with a 5-1 win against the Oilers in Game 6. Forward Sam Reinhart had four goals in the clinching game and center Sam Bennett was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP scoring a playoff-high 15 goals.

BEST PLAY: Center Aleksander Barkov made arguably the best play of the Eastern Conference Final to set up forward Carter Verhaeghe for the game-winning goal. Barkov got the puck in the right corner and carried it behind the net to the left corner. Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov was draped all over him, but Barkov still managed to dance free. He made an inside move on forward Eric Robinson to cut in around the left post and find space in the slot for a pass across to Verhaeghe, who was coming up from the goal line on the other side. In one motion, Verhaeghe whipped a shot high into the far corner of the net to give Florida a 4-3 lead at 12:21 of the third period. Bennett added an empty-net goal at 19:06 for the 5-3 series-clinching final.

TURNING POINT: It's overtime in Game 3 of the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amerant Bank Arena on May 9. The Panthers are down 2-0 in the series. They had a 4-3 lead in Game 3 until defenseman Morgan Rielly scored at 10:56 of the third period. But forward Brad Marchand delivered, scoring the overtime winner at 15:27 with a shot from the left face-off circle that went in off Rielly to give Florida a 5-4 win, cutting Toronto's lead in the series to 2-1. It set the Panthers off on a hot streak with eight victories in 10 games heading into the Cup Final.

BEST MOVES MADE: Acquiring Marchand in a shocking trade with the Boston Bruins on March 7. The 37-year-old forward only played 10 games with the Panthers in the regular season and had four points (two goals, two assists), but was a key cog in the playoffs, with 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 23 games, including six goals in the Final and two overtime goals in the postseason.

BEST MOVES NOT MADE: Removing Bobrovsky likely wasn't even part of Maurice's thought process after Game 2 against Toronto, but the coach still deserves credit for not overthinking and sticking with Florida's obvious No. 1 goalie. Bobrovsky had an .820 save percentage in those two games, but he's a Stanley Cup champion goalie and going away from him at that point would have sent the absolute wrong message to the team. Maurice knew that and Bobrovsky clearly delivered, once again, thanks to the coach's faith in him; he was 8-2 with a 1.57 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and two shutouts after that.

SIGNATURE WIN (REGULAR SEASON): You have to go back to Oct. 8, opening night, when the Panthers raised their first Stanley Cup championship banner to the Amerant Bank Arena rafters. It was, shall we say, a banner night all around. The fans, as Maurice said after the game, "were wired and there was a great buzz in the building." Florida used the energy to get off to a fast start in what became a 6-4 win against the Boston Bruins. They led 4-1 in the first period with Bennett scoring twice, with forwards Reinhart and Eetu Luostarinen also getting on the board. Bobrovsky made 24 saves. Then, after the game, the Panthers announced the signing of Verhaeghe to an eight-year contract.

SIGNATURE WIN (PLAYOFFS): The Panthers left no doubt in Game 7 against the Maple Leafs on May 18, coming off a 2-0 loss at home in Game 6 and having to travel back to Toronto. The game was scoreless after the first period, but defenseman Seth Jones, center Anton Lundell and forward Jonah Gadjovich each scored in a span of 6:24 to give Florida a 3-0 lead before 10 minutes elapsed in the second period. Center Max Domi gave the Maple Leafs a short-lived spark by scoring 2:07 into the third period, but Luostarinen answered 47 seconds later to make it 4-1. Reinhart scored to make it 5-1 at 9:24 and Marchand capped the 6-1 win with an empty-net goal at 16:57. It was a textbook example of the dominating game the Panthers are capable of, with six different goal-scorers and nine players with at least a point, including three each for Marchand and Luostarinen. Bobrovsky made 19 saves.

MVP: The Panthers have 19 skaters with at least one goal this postseason, led by Bennett's 10, and 10 skaters with at least 11 points in what has been an all-in effort. But Bobrovsky is standing on his own in Florida's net and made a strong case for the Conn Smythe Trophy, voted as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Bobrovsky finished the postseason 16-7 with a 2.20 GAA, .914 save percentage and three shutouts -- a better postseason than he had last year (16-8, 2.32 GAA, .906 save percentage, two shutouts) -- but Bennett was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, thanks to his NHL-leading 15 goals in the playoffs.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: That Florida has goals from 19 different skaters in the playoffs is near historic on its own merit; only eight teams in NHL history have had more unique goal-scorers in a playoff year. But what's maybe even more impressive is seven of those skaters are defensemen who have accounted for 15 goals in 17 games. The Panthers got 37 goals from defensemen in 82 regular season games. Their seven defensemen with goals matches the most by a team in a single postseason, a record they now share with the 1987 Oilers, 1988 Calgary Flames, 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins, 1994 Washington Capitals, 2019 Bruins and 2021 Vegas Golden Knights.