Vegas captain Mark Stone opened the scoring in the first period, and added goals in the second and third, as the Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers Tuesday in Game 5, securing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in its sixth year of existence.
— When the Vegas Golden Knights entered the NHL in 2017 as an expansion team, their owner Bill Foley said his plan was to win the Stanley Cup in six years.
That prophesy was emphatically fulfilled on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, as the Golden Knights blew out the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to win their series, 4-1, and capture the first championship in franchise history.
Captain Mark Stone authored a hat trick and Jack Eichel had three assists in the win. Goaltender Adin Hill outplayed Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, making 31 saves in the win.
The five-goal margin of victory was tied for the second largest ever in a Stanley Cup Final clinching game.
The Panthers, who were seeking their first Stanley Cup win, saw their remarkable playoff run from lowest seed in the Eastern Conference to the final round end in frustrating defeat. Florida was without a key contributor to that run in Game 5: star forward Matthew Tkachuk, who leads the Panthers in goals (11) and points (24). He was limited in their Game 4 loss by an upper body injury and wasn’t healthy enough to play in Game 5 — a critical blow to the Panthers’ chances to rally in the series.
The Golden Knights were rolling from the moment the puck dropped.
