Las Vegas, Nev. (WGR 550) – For the first time in their six-year history in the National Hockey League, the Vegas Golden Knights are Stanley Cup champions.
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After missing out on the Stanley Cup in their first year of existence in 2018, the Golden Knights manage to capture their first title five years later with a five-game series win over the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Game 5 was all Vegas from start-to-finish, as they capped off their series victory with a resounding 9-3 win over the Panthers in front of a home crowd that was energized all night long.
The Panthers received some disheartening news ahead of a do-or-die Game 5, as forward Matthew Tkachuk was ruled out of the contest with, what was first reported as, a "serious" upper-body injury. As it turns out, Tkachuk was dealing with a fractured sternum he suffered earlier in the series.
It was the Golden Knights striking first while shorthanded, as captain Mark Stone capitalized on a miscue by the Panthers in their own zone. After a pass attempted for Carter Verhaeghe went out to the neutral zone, Stone played the patience game on a 2-on-1 rush, and waited out goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to score his ninth goal of the postseason.
Less than two minutes later, Vegas upped their lead to 2-0 thanks to Nic Hague's second goal of the playoffs. The defenseman went to the net and found a loose puck laying in the Florida crease after Jack Eichel was stopped on a 2-on-1 rush.
The Panthers got the Golden Knights on their heels to start the second period, and the pressure resulted in their first tally of the night courtesy of Aaron Ekblad.
However, after a TV timeout, it seemed Vegas was able to shake off the cobwebs and responded with four goals to close out the period. Alec Martinez and Reilly Smith started the scoring barrage just 1:45 apart at the 10:28 mark of the second, while Stone scored his second of the night later in the frame, and Michael Amadio netted a goal with two seconds remaining in the period to extend the lead to 6-1.
Despite the Panthers closing the gap in the later stages of the third period to make the score 7-3, Stone capped off the hat-trick at the 14:06 mark with an empty-net tally. He was the first player to score a hat-trick in the Stanley Cup Final since Peter Forsberg did so with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 against the Panthers.
Nicolas Roy finished off the scoring with 1:02 remaining in regulation to give Vegas its ninth goal of the night.
The Conn Smythe Trophy for Playoffs MVP ended up being awarded to Marchessault, who finished the postseason with 25 points in 22 games played. He ends up tied for the playoff lead in goals with 13, and second in overall playoff scoring.
In the five-game series against the Panthers, Marchessault scored four goals and added four assists for eight points playing alongside Eichel and Ivan Barbashev.
As for Eichel, he finishes the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the leading scorer with 26 points (6+20) in 22 games for the Golden Knights. The former Buffalo Sabres captain put up eight assists over the five games played in the Final.
In goal, Adin Hill stopped 32 of 35 shots faced on the evening, and ended up Stanley Cup Final with a 4-1 record, a 2.36 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.
Hill also had his shot at winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoffs MVP, as he went 11-4 in the postseason since entering the Vegas net during their Round 2 series with the Edmonton Oilers. He posted a stellar 2.17 goals-against average, a .932 save percentage and two shutouts along the way.
Since becoming an expansion franchise in 2017, the Golden Knights still have six players remaining from the original roster that made its run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season: Marchessault, Smith, William Karlsson, William Carrier, Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb.
As for the Panthers, they come short of the Stanley Cup once again. This time around, though, they managed to earn a win in the Final after being swept by the Avalanche in 1996.
