Aleksander Barkov ended last season by hoisting the Stanley Cup, as the Florida Panthers fans got to roar in delight.

And this season started the same way.

Barkov, the Panthers’ captain, skated the Cup onto the ice Tuesday night moments before Florida hoisted its first championship banner to the rafters — with players all arm-in-arm as they gazed at the building’s newest memento. The Panthers posed with the Cup one more time after the banner made its 2-minute trip skyward, and then, finally, it was time for a new season to begin with a season-opener against the Boston Bruins.

“Now we get to try to chase it again,” Barkov said.

They played Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on the giant video screens over the ice before warmups, fans cheering again when Sam Reinhart scored the go-ahead goal and getting even louder when the final seconds where shown.

And then came the real ovation — when the final part of the Cup celebration came and the banner took its place in the rafters. Florida sent the fans home happy, scoring four first-period goals and beating the Bruins 6-4.

“I kind of felt like that was the closing to last season,” Florida forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It was cool to see that go up. And then we kind of flipped the page immediately and we got to our game.”

Sam Bennett scored twice, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues each had a goal and an assist to lead the Panthers, and Euto Luostarinen and Jonah Gadjovich also scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots as Florida improved to 4-1 over the past five openers.

Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak scored for Boston, which had won five consecutive openers.

Boston went with Joonas Korpisalo in net instead of newly re-signed Jeremy Swayman, who got his eight-year, $66 million deal done Sunday. Korpisalo made 29 saves. When it was 5-1 midway through the second, Panthers fans serenaded the Bruins with chants of “We want Swayman.”

“There was great energy in the building tonight,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Utah HC 5, Blackhawks 2 >> In its first game since coming over from Arizona in the offseason, the Utah Hockey Club defeated visiting Chicago in its season opener.

Scoring the first goal in the history of the Utah HC, formerly the Coyotes, was Dylan Guenther, whose slap shot beat Petr Mrazek at 4:56 of the first period.

Clayton Keller and Barrett Hayton also scored, giving Utah a 3-0 lead midway through the second period.

Chicago battled back to within 3-2, Guenther and Lawson Crouse scored in the final minute to end it.

Blues 3, Kraken 2 >> Jordan Kyrou scored two goals less than two minutes apart late in the second period, and St. Louis rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat Seattle in a season opener.

Philip Broberg also scored for St. Louis, his goal sandwiched between the two by Kyrou. All three goals came in a span of 1 minute, 55 seconds.

Vince Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen scored two minutes apart early in the second period for the Kraken.

Before the game, Seattle selected Jordan Eberle as its captain, filling the last void at that spot among the NHL’s 32 teams. Every team in the league has a captain for the first time since the 2010-11 season.

Notes >> Carter Verhaeghe and the Panthers agreed on an eight-year, $56 million contract extension, the deal getting announced shortly after ttheir season opener. The two-time Cup winner had 42 goals and 73 points in the 2022-23 season, then 34 goals and 72 points last season to help Florida’s title run.