2023 NHL Stanley Cup Final

Stone scores hat trick to help Vegas earn 1st championship in 6th NHL season

By Dan Rosen @drosennhl / NHL.com Senior Writer

June 13, 2023

Eight days shy of the seven-year anniversary of Las Vegas officially receiving an NHL franchise and 2,076 days after their first regular-season game, the Golden Knights became Stanley Cup champions.

The Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup for the first time, defeating the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Vegas won the Cup in its sixth season, becoming the second-fastest team to a championship in the expansion era (since 1967-68) behind the Edmonton Oilers (five, 1983-84).

“All of us, the Golden Knights, we’re all winners,” said forward Jonathan Marchessault, who was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. “It’s definitely the best feeling in the world.”

Mark Stone scored a hat trick, Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore each had three assists, and Reilly Smith had a goal and an assist for Vegas. Adin Hill made 32 saves.

The Golden Knights had seven goal-scorers and 15 players with at least one point.

“Depth all year,” Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We just used our depth to overwhelm people.”

Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves for the Panthers.

“Appropriate congratulations to Vegas, they earned it,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They were outstanding. We didn’t have an answer for them.”

The Panthers played without forward Matthew Tkachuk, their leading scorer in the playoffs (24 points; 11 goals, 13 assists), who broke his sternum in Game 3 but played through the injury in Game 4.

Maurice credited Tkachuk with being a smart enough player to make an impact in Game 4, but the pain was too great for him to keep going.

“He didn’t dress himself for the game,” Maurice said. “Somebody helped him get his gear on. Somebody tied his skates. Somebody put his sweater on for him. But the next day when he came in he was in significant pain, so it wasn’t really a question of whether he’d be able to play or not. The idea would be if we could let it calm, we might be able to get him to Game 7.”

The Golden Knights made sure that wasn’t going to be an option.

Stone got them started offensively by making it 1-0 with a short-handed goal off a 2-on-1 at 11:52 of the first period.

Hill gave the Golden Knights a chance to score first with a left-pad save on Anton Lundell, who was in alone on him, at 2:24, and a save on Aleksander Barkov with his left skate 18 seconds before Stone’s goal.

“The first goal is huge for us,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We didn’t start great. You could see a little bit of nerves and Florida was on us. What a great save from Hill and it led to a short-handed goal. It kind of let us breathe a little bit.”

Nicolas Hague gave Vegas a 2-0 lead at 13:41. He came in from the blue line, got to a loose puck in front of Bobrovsky and put it in.

Marchessault had an assist on Hague’s goal to extend his Golden Knights playoff-record point streak to 10 games (15 points; eight goals, seven assists). He finished the playoffs with 25 points (13 goals, 12 assists), second behind Eichel (26 points; six goals, 20 assists).

“I remember Game 4 [in Florida] we wanted to bring it back home and get a chance to win it at home,” Marchessault said. “And we did. Our team delivered tonight. We were dominating the whole game. I was just so proud to do it in front of our fans. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Aaron Ekblad cut it to 2-1 at 2:15 of the second period with a shot through traffic from the right point that beat Hill over his left shoulder.

But the Golden Knights scored four goals in the last 9:32 of the second period to put the game out of reach.

“Maybe we ran out of steam there a bit,” Ekblad said.

Alec Martinez made it 3-1 at 10:28 from the right face-off circle off a drop pass from Eichel.

It was nine years ago to the day that Martinez scored the double-overtime Cup-winning goal for the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 against the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

“Alec Martinez only scores in Stanley Cup Finals, apparently,” Cassidy said. “And what a timely goal that is.”

Smith scored 1:45 later to make it 4-1 at 12:13, beating Bobrovsky from the right side after William Karlsson set him up with a no-look, backhanded, between-the-legs pass in the slot.

“When we got the third and fourth goal, that was pretty nuts,” Hill said. “It was pretty surreal. Our team showed that ability all year with our depth, the ability to take over a game. It doesn’t matter what line is out there, we can just dominate shifts like that. We did it back to back and scored on both. That changed the course of the game right there.”

Stone’s second of the game made it 5-1 at 17:15. Chandler Stephenson brought the puck into the zone on the right side and dropped it to Brett Howden, who moved it across to Stone in the left circle. His shot got through Bobrovsky.

Michael Amadio made it 6-1 at 19:58 by scoring from the slot on his own rebound.

“We felt good about ourselves going into the third period, obviously,” Eichel said. “We had a big lead. We thought we did a good job in the second. You’re trying to hold all your emotions together. You need to finish the game.”

Ivan Barbashev extended the lead to 7-1 at 8:22 of the third. Twenty-five seconds later Reinhart cut it to 7-2 at 8:47, and Bennett made it 7-3 at 11:39 with a shot off Pietrangelo’s stick.

Stone finished his hat trick with an unassisted empty-net goal from deep in the other end to make it 8-3 at 14:06.

Then Nicolas Roy capped it at 18:58 for the 9-3 final.

“It’s the best feeling in the world to be able to do this,” Eichel said. “Lifelong dream.”

NOTES: Forward Grigori Denisenko took Tkachuk’s place in the lineup and made his playoff debut. He was minus-3 in 5:57 of ice time. … Stone had at least one point in each Cup Final game, finishing with nine points (five goals, four assists). He’s the first captain with nine or more points in a Cup Final since Joe Sakic had nine (four goals, five assists) with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. … Eichel’s 26 points are the third-most by a player in his first NHL postseason. Mark Recchi had 34 (10 goals, 24 assists) for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991, and Eric Staal had 28 (nine goals, 19 assists) for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

Source: nhl.com

Members of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrate after they defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 to win the Stanley Cup in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

By MARK ANDERSON | Associated Press

June 13, 2023

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Golden Knights delivered their city a true Vegas-style party from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat trick to all-out goal celebrations, capturing the young organization’s first Stanley Cup with a 9-3 romp over the beaten up and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to lead 6-1. The nine goals tied the record for the most in a Cup Final.

“Vegas, you certainly know how to throw a party,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told the crowd. “What’s going on inside this arena and outside is incredible and a testament to what a great hockey market this is.

“What has happened here has been simply incredible. Not only is Vegas a hockey town, it’s a championship town.”

Vegas closed out the series in five games to win the cup before a delirious franchise-record crowd of 19,058 at T-Mobile Arena that drowned out the pregame introductions of forward Jonathan Marchessault and goalie Adin Hill and cheered all the way through the final buzzer.

Marchessault, who ended the postseason with a 10-game points streak, received the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP.

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Jonathan Marchessault hold the Conn Smythe Trophy after the Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Knights won the series 4-1. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our organization,” Marchessault said. “Everybody stepped up at different times and that’s why we’re winners.”

Stone’s hat trick — with the third into an empty net with 5:54 left — was the first in a Stanley Cup Final since Colorado’s Peter Forsberg in 1996, also against the Panthers.

The Knights got the rest of their scoring from Nic Hague, Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Michael Amadio, Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy. Martinez’s goal in the second period came nine years to the day after he delivered the double-overtime goal in Game 5 to give the Los Angeles Kings’ the cup.

Hill came through with another strong performance that has quickly made him a Knights fan favorite, even earning “MVP! MVP!” chants in the third period. Jack Eichel, the eight-year pro playing in his first postseason, had three assists.

“This is what everyone dreams of,” Eichel said. “You come to an organization like this and the expectation is to win this thing. It’s a special place to play. I can’t give everyone enough credit for putting us in this position.

“They call ’em the misfits, those are the guys, they built this. They built this culture. So proud to be a part of it.”

As captain, Stone was the first to lift the cup before handing it over to the six Misfits to each get their turn skating with the trophy before handing it down the line to the rest of the team.

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mark Stone skates with the Stanley Cup after the Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Knights won the series 4-1. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

“Unbelievable,” Stone said. “The look in my teammates eyes when I got it, one of the craziest feelings I’ve ever had. I can’t even describe the feelings in my stomach right now. It’s everything you can imagine. The grind of an 82-game season, four playoff rounds. You grind and you grind and you grind.”

Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky was overwhelmed in another tough performance against Vegas after carrying Florida to the final. Missing from the lineup was Matthew Tkachuk, the king of game-winning shots during the playoffs but never the same after crushing blow to his shoulder by Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar in Game 3.

The Knights have set the standard of what an expansion franchise should look like, making the Cup Final in their first season and the playoffs in every year but one. Six players remain from the initial 2017-18 team that lost in five games to the Washington Capitals in the final.

Those players watched the Capitals skate with the Stanley Cup that night, and then they got the chance to do the same Tuesday to fulfill owner Bill Foley’s quest to win the championship in the sixth year.

“We waited a long time for that moment to come back.” Marchessault said. “We wanted to make sure we cash in this time.”

By creating such a lofty standard at the outset, the Knights played with high expectations, but repeatedly fell short despite four runs to at least the NHL semifinals – until Game 5 against the Panthers.

This is Las Vegas’ second pro title in nine months – the Aces claimed the WNBA championship in September – and continues the stunning growth of a sports market that was limited largely to prize fights, UNLV athletics, NASCAR and lots of golf before the Golden Knights took the city by storm. The Raiders began playing here in 2020, the Oakland Athletics appear headed to the desert, Las Vegas will host a Formula One race this year and the Super Bowl will be at Allegiant Stadium in February.

As for the Knights, their connection to Las Vegas was sealed ever since the shooting Oct. 1, 2017 that took 60 lives. They played an integral role in helping the city heal, reaching out to the community off the ice and winning big on it.

Beating Florida justified the many moves Knights management made to remake the roster over the years. Stone, Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo are the most notable players Vegas has acquired to get to this moment.

And Cassidy, hired a week after getting fired by the Boston Bruins last year, proved to be the coach to get them there.

“He came in, brought an intensity to our locker room that maybe we needed,” Stone said. “He wanted to win as badly as anybody else in that locker room.”

Cassidy seemingly pushing all the right buttons in helping Vegas become the Western Conference’s top seed and then the NHL’s champion.

“It’s a great story — very, very grateful to get another opportunity,” Cassidy said. “I’m just here to do my job and it worked out well.”

The Knights also won with an unlikely goalie in Hill, who was injured when the playoffs began. Laurent Brossoit was the starter until going out with an injury in Game 3 of the second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers, and then Hill got his chance.

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill skates with the Stanley Cup after the Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Knights won the series 4-1. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

“You dream about it every day growing up as a child.” Hill said. “To be here with this group of guys, in this city, in this building, is a dream come true.”

Source: Associated Press