SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Prince of Wales Trophy was carried onto the ice as time expired, as an arena full of Florida Panthers fans roared with joy and dozens of players and staff rushed to pose with the award.
Last year, the Panthers defied tradition and touched the trophy.
This year, they didn’t. The message was clear. The Stanley Cup is the only one they want.
For the second year in a row, they have a chance to win hockey’s biggest prize. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots, Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and the Florida Panthers are once again headed to the Stanley Cup Final after defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 on Saturday night.
“We touched on it last year and it didn’t work for us,” Bennett said of ignoring the trophy, the one given to the Eastern Conference champions. “So we thought we’d try something different this year.”
The Panthers — who lost the Cup Final to Vegas last year — won the East title series in six games. Florida will face either Edmonton or Dallas in the Cup, a series scheduled to begin on June 8.
Artemi Panarin scored with 1:40 left and Igor Shesterkin stopped 32 shots for the Rangers, who had a 2-1 series lead — then lost three in a row, costing them the season. It was New York’s longest losing streak since mid-January and means that for the 11th consecutive year, the team that finishes with the best regular-season record in the NHL will not win the Stanley Cup.
“Listen, our guys have struggled this year,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “They were on board from the beginning. It’s disappointing; When you start something like this, you don’t do it to get three playoff wins or five playoff wins. You do this to go all the way.
If Edmonton – which leads the West final 3-2 – advances, Game 1 of the title round will be on Florida ice. If Dallas wins the West, the Stars will have home-field advantage in the title series. The Oilers can close out this series on Sunday night.
Florida will play for the Stanley Cup for the third time. The Panthers were defeated by Colorado in 1996 and lost 4-1 to Vegas last season. It’s also the third time in the final for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who lost to Carolina in 2002 and then Florida last year.
Maybe the third time will be the charm for both of them.
“My enjoyment of the game – and this is new to me – comes from my understanding that I’m not that important here,” said Maurice, who, at 57, is in the running to be the second oldest coach to win his first title. Stanley Cup; Bruce Cassidy was 58 when Vegas gave him his first title last year. “And I mean it. There’s a great quote: ‘Don’t be so humble, you’re not that good.’ It’s the players. And when they’re going, they don’t need me.”
Florida’s victory meant it has been five consecutive seasons since a Sunshine State team has won the Eastern Conference; Tampa Bay won the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and now Florida is back-to-back. The Panthers are also now the 15th active NHL franchise to reach the Stanley Cup Final in consecutive seasons.
The Panthers also eliminated the best team of the regular season – the Presidents’ Trophy winner – for the second year in a row. Last season, Florida stunned Boston in the first round, winning Game 7 on the road. This time, it was the Rangers who fell to Florida, which became the first franchise to knock off the No. 1 overall seed in consecutive years since Pittsburgh did it to Washington in 2016 and 2017.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought we tried to play everything we had. It just wasn’t enough today.”
And for Bobrovsky, taking down No. 1 is evidently what he enjoys.
He was in net to beat the No. 1 overall seed for the third time in six years — the Rangers this year, the Bruins last year and Tampa Bay when he was in Columbus in 2019.
“We were right there,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “We simply fell short.”
Bennett opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period, sending the puck to Evan Rodrigues, recovering it and sending a shot over Shesterkin’s glove into the top right corner of the net. It was Bennett’s third consecutive scoring game, matching his longest streak of the season and marking the first time he had such a streak in the postseason.
Bennett had a play near the blue line with about five minutes left in the second period that created a big chance, which had Matthew Tkachuk skating into the slot with just Shesterkin ahead of him. Shesterkin made a toe save, although Tkachuk didn’t get much on the shot as Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller swung up from behind and hit him on the wrist with his stick just before the shot was fired.
Tarasenko was alone on the side of the net midway through the third for an easy goal, making it 2-0 and the countdown began.
The Rangers did not go quietly. Shesterkin went to the bench with 2:24 remaining and Panarín scored 44 seconds later, cutting Florida’s lead in half. But Florida killed the rest of the clock, and with that, it was time to celebrate – this time without taking the trophy away.
“We were hoping to come back here,” Tkachuk said. “Obviously, nothing is guaranteed. But we expected that.”
