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Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers to win Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 13, 2020. lift the cup
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Entering their sixth season in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights won their first championship on Tuesday night with a 9-3 victory over the Florida Panthers in Las Vegas. stanley cup in 5 games.
Las Vegas captain Mark Stone has had goals at various times to lead the Golden Knights, who joined the NHL before the 2017-2018 season.
Stone, 31, will become the first player since 1922 to score a hat-trick in winning the Stanley Cup, according to the NHL.
After the match, as per tradition, each player took turns lifting the famous trophy.
“Unbelievable,” Stone told TNT of his experience. “Just looking into my teammates’ eyes… one of the craziest emotions I’ve ever felt. Just doing it with 25 or 30 of my best friends made it even more special.” increase.”
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Mark Stone #61 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrated with an empty net hat-trick goal.
The Golden Knights’ offensive prowess was once again on full display on Tuesday night in front of raucous crowds inside and outside the T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights became the seventh team in NHL history to score five or more goals in three or more games in the same Stanley Cup Finals series.
The championship will be Las Vegas’ second major title in the past two years. In 2022, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces won the league championship with a 3-1 series victory over the Connecticut Sun.
Las Vegas led 2-0 at the first intermission, but a rout began in the second period as the new champions scored four points to take a 6-1 lead going into the final 20 minutes.
Golden Knights goalkeeper Addin Hill conceded two goals, but continued to hold off the Panthers with a barrage of fine saves on the third goal.
Jonathan Marcheso won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Postseason Player of the Year. However, he missed out on contributing to the championship.
“You know, one night it’s one man and one night it’s another man,” he told TNT. “That was our mentality this year. We have a lot of good teammates in the locker room. …Everyone stepped up at different times.”
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Brayden McNabb #3 of the Vegas Golden Knights is about to clear the pack.
Stone scored a short goal with 8:08 remaining in the first period to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, the puck came under Florida goaltender Sergey Bobrovski before Vegas’ Nicholas Haag slammed it into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Panthers, already facing a tough series battle, had no superstars Matthew Tokachuk He was sidelined in Game 5 due to an undisclosed injury. But early in the second period, the Panthers narrowed the lead to one with a Nick Cousins assist and Aaron Ekblad scoring. Ekblad’s second playoff goal made it 2-1 with 17:45 left on the clock.
Alec Martinez restored the Golden Knights’ two-point lead with a wrist shot over Bobrovski’s right shoulder. With 9 minutes and 32 seconds left in the period, it was 3-1 Golden Knights.
Vegas extended their lead to 3 after Riley Smith nailed a nifty pass from William Carlson to his wide-open teammate. The score was 4-1 Las Vegas with 7 minutes and 47 seconds remaining in the second period.
Las Vegas’ fifth came with 2 minutes and 45 seconds left before the break when Stone scored a clever cross-ice pass from Brett Howden to score the second.
Disaster for the Panthers came with just seconds left when Florida failed to get the puck out of the defensive zone and Smith picked it up at the blue line. He fed in front of the net to Michael Amadio, whose rebound shot landed under Bobrovski’s feet.
In the third period, Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored the winning goals after Golden Knights’ Ivan Barbashev made it 7-1.
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#49 Ivan Barbashev of the Las Vegas Golden Knights celebrates with his teammates during the third period.
Stone scored a hat-trick with an empty net goal as Florida went 8-3 against six skaters. And with just over a minute left in the season, Nicholas Roy made the final score 9-3.
After reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in the franchise’s first season, the Golden Knights are back in the Championship Series for the second time in their young history.
“That pain was horrendous, to tell you the truth,” said Marcheseau, who has been with the team for six straight seasons. Our team has been incredible from the start and we are the winners.”
The win made the Golden Knights the second-fastest team to win the league in modern times in 1943-44. The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup in his fifth season with the NHL franchise.
