The Florida Panthers have been a machine when playing away from home during this postseason.

Florida picked up their tenth road victory on Saturday night, defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Panthers are now just one win away from claiming their second straight Stanley Cup Championship.

Now as we all learned exceptionally well a year ago, that fourth win should be the most difficult to obtain, but Florida has been arguably getting better as the series has progressed, so perhaps they will be able to get over the hump a little easier than they did last season.

Saturday night’s win is a big step in the right direction.

Let’s get to the Game 5 takeaways:

WEATHERING THE STORM

The final score and ultimate result of Game 5 would indicate an incredibly positive night for the Panthers.

In many ways, that’s true.

Florida appeared to start the game strongly, leading 2-0 after the first period and holding an 8-3 edge in the shots on goal department, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

During the first half of that opening frame, Edmonton was finding some speed through the neutral zone and creating havoc around Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida’s veteran netminder stood tall though, not allowing the Oilers, or their fans, to gain any kind of momentum in what proved to be a smothering night of defending by the Panthers.

“Sergei (Bobrovsky), in the first ten minutes, got tested hard,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I thought (Edmonton) came out right and fast. They got through the neutral zone on us a couple times and he had to make a couple of big saves, and when you’re on the road, if you can keep the building from lighting up in the first 10 minutes, that’s just a big part of the emotions of what goes on, so I thought that his performance, especially early in that game, was key.”

VALUE IN FOURTH LINE

There has been plenty of talk during the Stanley Cup Final, and really during much of Florida’s playoff run, about the team’s depth and the contributions that they receive from their non-star players.

The Panthers are blessed to have three high-end forward lines, all featuring players who are elite in at least one facet of the game, but most are more than above-average in several key areas.

What helps Florida be such a unique and heavy group is that they are able to roll all four lines and not have to worry about playing the matchup game nearly as much as most of the teams in the NHL.

When Maurice has the full confidence in his forward group to toss any of his lines over the boards in any situation, it helps keeps the entire bunch that much fresher for the key moments that can pop up late in games, especially during the playoffs.

“Trust your bench, right?” Maurice said. “So we talked about Brad Marchand tonight. I think he was at 13:55 (of ice time), and a big part of that is the Tomas Nosek line and the minutes they ate. So (Sasha) Barkov, I would’ve gathered, was right around 20 [he had 19:31], that puts (Sam Bennett) right around 17 [he played 17:31], and what’s (Anton Lundell) got, 15? [Lundell played 14:41]. All those numbers are based on what those men (on the fourth line) did. They blocked shots, they battled, they were fast, they were on and off the ice. They were good for us tonight.”

GETTING BACK TO PANTHERS HOCKEY

When Florida is at their best, they are making things incredibly difficult and frustrating for their opponents.

That has proven to be quite difficult for the Panthers during the Stanley Cup Final, and all the credit goes to the Oilers and how solid of a squad they have built.

On Saturday night during Game 5 in Edmonton, we saw more of that grinding, physical, five-man defending working to Florida’s advantage than we had in the first four games of the Final.

Will it be a sign of things to come? Perhaps.

For now, it appears that if either team has been building any kind of momentum from the start of the series until now, it would be the Panthers.

“Well, we were close to our identity (earlier in the series), but it's a hard thing to establish, it’s a hard thing to get to,” Maurice said. “It's solely based on the will of the players to play a game, and then we've had a little bit of success with it, so why wouldn't they, right? I'm not trying to be humble here. This is all about the compete of the players. When the captain of your team wins Selke awards, that's the foundation of your game.”

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Photo caption: Jun 14, 2025; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) and forward Tomas Nosek (92) defend against a shot on net by the Edmonton Oilers during the first period in game five of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place. (Sergei Belski-Imagn Images)