There was no collapse. The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions for the first time, and they took about the hardest path possible to the title.

Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals, Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. It was the third title-round appearance in Florida's 30-year history; they were swept in 1996 by Colorado and routed 4-1 by Vegas last season.

"You have to go through it first," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said, "to know what it takes to get it done."

This time, they were on the right side of history ? after avoiding what would have been a historic collapse. The Panthers won the first three games of the series, then lost the next three and needed a win on Monday night to avoid joining the 1942 Detroit Red Wings as the only teams to lose the final after taking a 3-0 lead in the title round.

It wasn't easy. Not even close. But it's done. It took until the very end for the Panthers to deny Edmonton their first Cup since 2006.

Mattias Janmark had the Oilers' goal and Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots for the visitors. They also couldn't snap Canada's title drought; it's been 1993 and counting since a team based in Canada won the Cup.

Montreal was the last to do so, 30 seasons ago. Since then, there have been seven attempts by teams from Canadian-based cities ? Vancouver in 1994 and 2011, Calgary in 2004, the Oilers in 2006, Ottawa in 2007 and the Canadiens in 2021 ? to win titles, and all were in vain.

South Florida now has one of everything when it comes to titles from the four major pro sports leagues in the US The Miami Dolphins were NFL champions twice, the then-Florida Marlins were MLB champions twice, the Miami Heat have three NBA titles and now the Panthers have joined the party.

"It's not what I thought it would be," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

"It's so much better."

Florida got the first goal just 4:27 into the game when Verhaeghe waved his stick at the puck that was fired in from the left side by Evan Rodrigues and got just enough to redirect it past Skinner for a 1-0 lead ? the first Florida lead since the end of Game 3.

They waited more than a week to be back on top. They stayed there for just over two minutes.

Janmark got behind the Florida defence and beat Bobrovsky over the right shoulder at 6:44, knotting things right back up and ensuring that this Game 7 of the final ? like all 17 of the previous such games ? wouldn't end 1-0.

It stayed that way through wild ebbs and flows until Reinhart scored late in the second to put Florida up 2-1. It was his 67th goal of the season, extending his Florida single-season record.

"It's not a dream anymore. It's not a dream. It's reality," said Tkachuk, who got traded to Florida two summers ago with this as his goal.

"I can't believe it ... I can't believe how good these two years have been."