Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) tallied a goal and an assist as the Florida Panthers routed the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 6-1, tonight in Game Three of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers, who scored three power-play goals in the victory, now lead the best-of-seven series, two games to one, having won the last two games after dropping the opener. Game Four is Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Nate Schmidt (Minnesota) had two assists and Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) added another, but the defending NHL champion Florida Panthers fell, 4-3, in overtime last night to the host Edmonton Oilers in Game One of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final.
After falling behind in the first two minutes of play, Florida rebounded to take 2-1 and 3-1 leads at Rogers Centre before watching the Oilers scored three unanswered goals to take the series lead. Jake Walman (Providence), who won an NCAA title in 2015, had one assist and five shots on goal last night for the Oilers, who won the NHL's Western Conference championship for the second straight year. Florida is the Eastern Conference champion for the third straight season.
Florida defeated Edmonton in seven games last spring in the final to earn the initial Stanley Cup in franchise history, taking a 3-0 lead in that series only to see Edmonton win the next three games before the Panthers claimed the clincher at home. The Oilers are seeking their first Stanley Cup crown since 1990, their sixth overall, and the first by a Canadian-based NHL club since 1993.
ADDENDUM: Schmidt again registered two assists and Rodrigues one as the Panthers tied the series with a 5-4 win in double OT on June 6. Game Three is Monday night in Florida.
For the third straight season, the Florida Panthers are the NHL's Eastern Conference champion. The Panthers closed out their most recent best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoff series in five games, by defeating the host Carolina Hurricanes, 5-3, last night in the Eastern Conference final.
Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) scored Florida's second goal, his first of the series after recording six assists over the first three games, to tie matters at two as the Panthers overcame an early 2-0 deficit with three straight second-period goals. Florida native Shayne Gostisbehere (Union) assisted on Carolina's third goal to knot the contest midway through the third period, but Florida tallied the final two goals to put the game and the series to rest.
Florida advances to the 2025 Stanley Cup Final to take on the winner of the Western Conference Final, with Edmonton leading Dallas, three games to one, in that series.
ADDENDUM: Edmonton ousted Dallas in five games to set up a rematch of last year's final, won by Florida in seven games.
A.J. Greer (Boston University) notched the game-winning goal in the second period, and the defending NHL champion Florida Panthers routed the host Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2, in tonight's Eastern Conference Final opener.
Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) picked up an assist on Florida's fourth goal, as the Panthers won for the ninth time this spring in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Carolina's Jackson Blake (North Dakota) scored the game's final goal late in the third period on a power play, assisted by Shayne Gostisbehere (Union). The Hurricanes outshot the Panthers, 33-20, on the night, but were behind by a goal after 20 minutes and down by three after 40 minutes.
Florida is in its third straight conference final, having won the last two plus last year's Stanley Cup. The Hurricanes have lost 13 straight conference final contests, an NHL record. Game Two is Thursday night in Raleigh.
Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) assisted on the game-opening goal, and the host Florida Panthers went on to a 2-1 victory in the deciding Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night to win the 2024 Stanley Cup. Edmonton had won the previous three games in the best-of-seven series, after Florida had claimed the first three contests. The Cup win was the first in Florida's 30-year history, while Edmonton was seeking its sixth NHL title all-time, and first since 1990.
Florida's Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart sandwiched goals around one by Edmonton's Mattias Janmark through the first 40 minutes of play, while the third period was scoreless before 19,939 on-lookers at Amerant Bank Arena. Sergei Brobovsky made 23 saves in net for the Panthers, while Stuart Skinner finished with 19 stops for the Oilers.
Besides Rodrigues, other players with NCAA ties on this year's Panthers' roster included William Lockwood (Michigan), Ryan Lomberg (Maine), Brandon Montour (Massachusetts), Kyle Okposo (Minnesota), Mike Reilly (Minnesota), Mackie Samoskevich (Michigan) and Anthony Stolarz (Nebraska-Omaha). Lomberg, Montour, Okposo and Stolarz all played in the Cup final along with Rodrigues. Also in the Panthers' lineup was Spencer Knight (Boston College), as the third-string goaltender, although he spent the entirety of the 2023-24 season playing for Charlotte (AHL).
The Oilers came up one game short of becoming the first Canadian team to win the Cup since 1993, and the first NHL club to rebound from an 0-3 deficit in the final since 1945. Edmonton's Connor McDavid still won this year's Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP, just the sixth player from the losing team in the final to do so, and the first since 2003. He also led all NHL skaters in this year's postseason with 42 points, including a league-record 34 assists.
Zach Hyman (Michigan) finally got a goal in this year's Stanley Cup Final—and now the Edmonton Oilers are one win away from tying the series, after losing the first three games.
Hyman, who scored a career-high 54 goals during the NHL regular season, notched his league-leading 15th goal of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday on a power play as the Oilers raced out to a three-goal lead and held on for a 5-3 win over the host Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Fla. The Panthers still lead the best-of-seven series, three games to two, but failed to close it out and win the Cup for the second straight game, this time at home before 19,956 spectators at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida rebounded to make it a 4-2 contest by the end of the second stanza, with Brandon Montour (Massachusetts) setting up Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) for his league-best fourth goal of the final late in the period. The Panthers then closed to within a goal just over four minutes into the final frame, but Edmonton held on to close out matters with an empty-net goal in the final half-minute by NHL leading scorer Connor McDavid, who has recorded eight points (3g-5a) for the Oilers over the last two games.
Game Six is Friday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) scored a goal in Saturday's 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers to lift the Florida Panthers to a one-game lead in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. He scored twice tonight in the third period in a 4-1 victory that enabled the Panthers to put stranglehold on the series it shifts to Alberta later this week.
A center who hails from Toronto, Rodrigues picked off a clearing pass and wristed home a shot from the left circle early in the final frame on an expiring Florida power play to break a 1-1 tie, and then scored on a deflection less than nine minutes later to make it 3-1. Florida, which is playing in its second straight Stanley Cup Final after falling to Vegas last year, now leads this year's best-of-seven series, two games to none, in pursuing its first NHL championship ever. Game Three will be held on Thursday at Edmonton's Rogers Place.
Rodrigues, 30, who was a member of BU's 2015 NCAA national runner-up squad, tallied 42 goals and 121 points in his four-year college career with the Terriers. He now has six goals and five assists in 19 postseason games so far this spring with the Panthers, and has recorded 10-12-22 points in 35 career Stanley Cup Playoff outings with Pittsburgh, Colorado and Florida.
