SUNRISE — This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not in today’s NHL, anyway.

You lose in the Stanley Cup Final, your initial reaction is next year you’ll take that extra step.

It almost never works that way.

These Florida Panthers are making it work that way. They’re doing to history what they do to their opponents: Bullying it. Stonewalling it. Rejecting it.

Saturday night, the Panthers beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 to clinch their third-ever Eastern Conference championship and their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Panthers will face Dallas or Edmonton starting June 8, with the Oilers holding a 3-2 edge in their Western Conference Final entering Game 6 Sunday night.

That’s for next week.

Saturday night, Amerant Bank Arena was ready for a celebration, and celebrate, it did. The place was sold out again, with some shelling out four figures to the right to say they were there the night history was made.

When a message came on the video boards just before puck drop: “Are you ready to finish this?” fans roared.

It was pretty, but Panthers kind of pretty

Was it pretty? If you consider grinding your opponent to the nub pretty, this was (gulp) a work of art. Better to describe this as Panthers hockey, the kind Paul Maurice dictated the moment Florida named him coach and he declared his team was going to play playoff hockey starting with Game 1 of the regular season through Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. It's demanding physically and mentally, yet this team seems to keep getting stronger.

Saturday night, towel-waving, rat-throwing fans came to see a handshake line. That could only happen with the Panthers dispensing of the Rangers and their offensive stars, who were stymied by Sergei Bobrovsky in this series.

On the 28th anniversary of the first Eastern Conference title in Panthers history, Sam Bennett got the Panthers on their way with a goal in the final minute of the first period. For the longest time, it appeared that was all Bobrovsky would need. In all, he made 23 saves. His reward came when he was serenaded with chants of “Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” while he and Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers’ outstanding goaltender, shook hands at center ice.

Then, the chant shifted.

“We want the Cup! We want the Cup!” fans yelled.

When they won the conference title last year, the Panthers clutched the Prince of Wales Trophy. This time, they avoided it like kryptonite.

“We wanted to do something different,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.

Matthew Tkachuk predicted a return to the Final a year ago

The Stanley Cup was almost theirs last year, but the Las Vegas Golden Knights got in the way. Now, only the Stars or Oilers remain.

“We’re just happy to be back,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “It’s so special to be in this position after such a tough loss last year. I remember going around the locker room after we lost to Las Vegas, telling everybody, ‘We’ll be back, we’ll be back.’ ”

Sounds simple. It’s not. You’d have to go back to the 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins for the last Stanley Cup Final runners-up who returned to the Final the next season. Before that? The 1982-83 Oilers.

Florida makes it three teams in 41 seasons. If you think that rarity is normal across team sports, think again. Over the same period, it happened 11 times in the NBA, four times in the NFL and six in baseball.

“Time to Hunt: Redemption 2024” was a theme for these Panthers after coming three wins shy of a title in 2023. At that point, the Panthers could go only one of two directions.

“We got better,” Maurice said.

Maurice figures the physical nature of his sport coupled with an 82-game schedule make it so challenging to reach multiple Cup Finals in hockey.

“I don’t know how many teams actually get better that next year because you’re usually paying a bunch of guys because they got to the Final and their salary cap changes and now you’re going to lose some guys,” he said.

Makes sense. The exact opposite happened here, thanks to Panthers GM Bill Zito and his golden touch.

“We added three NHL defensemen and we added a penalty-killing, great-shot forward, so our hockey team is better this year,” Maurice said.

There’s one other thing the team has this year that it didn’t have against Vegas. Healthy bodies.

More: Five Reasons why Florida Panthers can win the Stanley Cup championship as playoffs near

“A lot of us were hobbling around last year at this time,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “We’re a lot healthier now. We’re really optimistic about how we feel as a team right now.”

Midway through the third period, Anton Lundell, who scored the go-ahead goal in Game 5, blocked a shot, then hustled up ice to center a pass to Vladimir Tarasenko, who was waiting on the back door. A simple touch left Shesterkin helpless. It was 2-0 and a party was breaking out.

“Last year we believed, but we were also happy to be there,” Bennett said. “This year, we have one goal in mind.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Panthers oust Rangers in 6, earn rare shot at Stanley Cup redemption