SUNRISE — A year ago, when the Florida Panthers won the Eastern Conference Final to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, almost every player touched the Prince of Wales trophy during the post-game celebration.

On Saturday night, barely any of the Panthers touched the Prince of Wales trophy. Consider it a lesson learned 12 months after watching Las Vegas players carry Lord Stanley's trophy around the ice upon defeating Florida in the finals.

The Panthers clinched their second-straight trip to the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday night with a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final.

Sam Bennett blasted a one-timer off a feed from Evan Rodrigues past Igor Shesterkin with 48.5 seconds to go in the first period and Florida never lost the lead.

“It took a lot of motivation, dedication and commitment,” Panthers leading scorer Matthew Tkachuk said. “The right pieces were added and we had one mindset to do whatever we can to get back to it. I thought the guys that were here last year did an unbelievable job coming back for the start of training camp with this on their mind and we’re not done yet. We’re very happy with the way the playoffs have gone for us, winning the first three (series), but it’s a different feeling this year for sure.

"That was a tough loss last year but we're back."

The Panthers, who fell to Las Vegas in five games in last year's Stanley Cup Finals, now await the winner of the Western Conference Final, which Edmonton leads 3-2 over Dallas heading into Sunday's Game 6. The Stanley Cup Finals start on June 8.

Vladimir Tarasenko gave the Panthers a two-goal cushion against the Rangers with 10:52 to go in regulation, finishing off a cross-crease feed from Anton Lundell to put the game out of reach for New York.

Artemi Panarin brought the Rangers back within a goal with 1:39, sniping a shot from the face-off circle with Shesterkin pulled for the extra attacker.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky did the rest, stopping 22 of 23 shots, including four high-danger saves and five saves in the third period.

"The job is not done,” Bobrovsky said. “Tonight was just a step. There’s a good challenge in front of us and we’re excited for it.”

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Here are three takeaways from the Panthers’ conference final-clinching win as they advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in their history:

Panthers play to their identity, shut down Rangers

Going into Saturday night’s close-out Game 6, the message around the Panthers locker room was to shut out the noise and stick to their identity. And they did just that.

Florida played the same defensively-structured game it has all season, suffocating New York in the neutral zone and pressuring hard on the forecheck. The Panthers limited the high-quality chances from the Rangers and played their style of hockey. They also stopped 14 of 15 penalty chances New York had during the series.

After clinching a second trip to the Stanley Cup Final in as many years, it’s a proven formula that gets the job done.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are left to wonder what happened to the team with the best regular-season record.

"We make it to this point and it's disappointing," New York coach Peter Laviolette said. "When you start something like this ... you do it to go the whole way. So there's a disappointment right now that sets in with our group and our intentions we had throughout the year. Nobody was expecting to be on this end of it."

Bennett back at full strength and better than ever

In the weeks after returning to the lineup from a hand injury, Bennett looked limited. He was not taking face-offs, he was not as active offensively, but when it mattered the most for the Panthers, he was back.

Bennett has looked like himself again. It was that way in Game 5 of the series, where he scored a goal and an assist to help get the Panthers in position to clinch on Saturday night. And he did it again Saturday, relentlessly pressuring on the forecheck, getting in passing lanes and ultimately getting Florida on the board with a blast of a slap shot.

It felt good,” Bennett said of his contributions. “I started to feel a little bit more like myself as the series went on and it was definitely nice to be able to stick handle a little better than it was earlier. It feels good to be back to feeling right.”

Bobrovsky shows flashes of brilliance with small spurts of action

When the Panthers needed him to be great, Bobrovsky did just that. Even when they did not need him to be often.

The high-quality scoring chances were few and far between, but Bobrovsky stepped up big time. His magnum opus was a sprawling glove save he made on Jack Roslovic on a delayed penalty near the midway point of the second period. Florida went on to allow just one shot that power play and momentum immediately swung back in its favor.

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“It is a luxury for sure,” Aleksander Barkov said of Bobrovsky. “He’s the hardest-working guy I have ever seen. You just know when a guy works that hard, he is also super calm. Every single day, every single practice, he’s having fun. Morning skate, he’s having fun. Warm-ups, all that kind of stuff. You see him being in the zone and you know he is going to be on the top of his game and he’s been unbelievable.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers return to Stanley Cup Finals, top New York Rangers in 6 games