Captain Mark Stone scored triples and Nicholas Hague, Alec Martinez, Riley Smith, Michael Amadeo, Ivan Barbashev and Nicholas Roy added singles as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 on Tuesday to win their first Stanley Cup. .
Vegas beat Florida in five games, capping a 111-point season as they finished first in the Western Conference. It’s an amazing feat for the NHL’s second-youngest franchise, which won a title in its sixth year of operation.
Stone opened the scoring with a short header in the first period, looking over to Jonathan Marchesault before stopping in front of Panthers goaltender Sergey Bobrovsky, for a 1-0 lead. Haig added an insurance tag in controversial fashion as Jack Eichel threw the puck towards the net, where it was briefly buried. A whistle was heard and then Haig lashed out. After a brief review, the call was upheld.
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad put his team on the board, beating Vegas goaltender Aden Hill with a wrist shot from the point, but any optimism that Florida would come back was short-lived. Martínez scored his second goal of the playoffs, getting a feed from Eichel and volleying past Sergei Bobrovsky for a 3–1 lead. It’s been nine years since Martinez scored the trophy-clinching goal for the Los Angeles Kings in 2014.
From there, the escape was on. Smith scored in the open cage, Stone added his second of the night, then Amadeo scored on the net as the Golden Knights built an indomitable 6-1 lead into the second period. Barbashev scored in the third before Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett made saves for the Panthers shortly thereafter with the score already in the balance.
Stone capped off his third with an empty net goal with less than six minutes left in the final frame. Roy puts an exclamation mark on the winning score in the last minute.
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