SUNRISE, Fla. – Panthers fans are rejoicing after the Cats clinched their second straight Stanley Cup victory against the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night.
The Florida Panthers repeated as Stanley Cup champions by beating the Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the final, becoming the NHL’s first back-to-back winners since Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 and the third team to do it this century.
From the Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale, to La Carreta in Westchester, fans were out celebrating the big win.
The bars were packed, and fans were dancing on tables, in the streets and with strangers.
And of course, the pots and pans came out as well.
“Thank you for your hard work. We love you so much. Go Cats, baby,” one woman at The Brightside bar in Miami said.
Panthers fan Jimmy Masiello even got to celebrate with the team inside the locker room!
“I can’t believe it. I just left the locker room, actually,” he told Local 10 News. “Me and my father both worked there and I was privileged enough to accompany him into the locker room, help serve all the players and their wives, and it was just an absolute party.”
For South Florida fans, this win means everything.
After those early years of disappointment back in the day, the last few years have been different with the team now considered a powerhouse on the ice.
Sam Reinhart scored four goals, becoming just the sixth player in league history and the first since Maurice Richard in 1957 to get that many in a game in the final. His third to complete the hat trick sent rats, along with hats, flying onto the ice. Matthew Tkachuk, one of the faces of the franchise, fittingly scored the Cup clincher.
More rats were part of the victory celebration when the clock hit zeroes. Panthers players mobbed in the corner, while the Oilers watched in dismay.
