Golden Knights tame Panthers to capture 1st Stanley Cup in just 6th year of existence | CBC Sports

The Vegas Golden Knights captured the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in just its sixth season of existence on Tuesday after closing out the Florida Panthers at home with a 9-3 win in Game 5 of the finals.

Stone got Vegas going halfway through the first period on the penalty kill, patiently waiting out Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky before roofing his ninth goal of the playoffs, capitalizing on a miscommunication between Panthers forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.

Nearly two minutes later, Vegas’ prized off-season trade acquisition, Jack Eichel, helped orchestrate the team’s next goal after directing a backhand on net, which defenceman Nicolas Hague converted in close.

Jonathan Marchessault recorded his 25th point of the playoffs on Hague’s goal, moving him past star Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk — who missed the game with an undisclosed injury — for sole possession of top spot in playoff scoring.

Marchessault, previously a member of the Panthers — who left him exposed for selection in the 2017 expansion draft where Vegas acquired him, was awarded with the Conn Smythe Trophy, given annually to the most valuable player to his team during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers then responded when defenceman Aaron Ekblad found the back of the net from the point just over two minutes into the second period.

Eichel later tied Marchessault at the top of the scoring leaderboard after setting up trailing defenceman Alec Martinez off the rush, who fired a shot past Bobrovsky to reclaim Vegas’ two-goal lead.

The Golden Knights would tack on another goal in quick succession when William Karlsson set up Reilly Smith with a between-the-legs feed after a Shea Theodore shot was blocked in the slot.

The three players all played on the inaugural-season Golden Knights team that lost to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.

While Stone got his squad going early in the game, his goal with just under three minutes remaining in the second period to bring the game to 5-1 was the one that left little doubt he’d be the first to receive the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman later that night.

And if there was still any doubt, forward Michael Amadio’s goal with 1.2 seconds left on the clock in the second frame to bring the score to 6-1 squashed that.

For good measure, Stone would proceed to complete his hat trick in the final frame, converting an empty-net goal 14:06 into the period as the Panthers vainly attempted to claw back into the contest.

Stone’s hat trick was the 40th in Stanley Cup Final history and the first since Peter Forsberg in Game 2 of the 1996 final.

Building a winner

The victory caps a six-year run that saw the Golden Knights accumulate the second most playoff wins in the NHL behind the Tampa Bay Lightning by reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, and finish one series short of the final on two occasions in 2020 and 2021 — both overseen by former head coach Peter DeBoer.

The top seed in the Western Conference powered through the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers and DeBoer’s Dallas Stars before dispatching the No. 8 seed Panthers — a team that had taken down three of the top four teams in the league in the Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes before meeting their match in Vegas.

The Golden Knights’ approach to building a championship-winning roster isn’t just unprecedented in modern NHL history, it’s nearly impossible to replicate for other squads around the league.

Six players remain from the 2017-18 roster that went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final less than a year after holding the NHL Expansion Draft to fill out 30 roster spots from around the league, but only four of those players (defenceman Brayden McNabb, and forwards Marchessault, Karlsson and William Carrier) were official Vegas selections.

The other two (Smith and Theodore) were acquired through shrewd trades with the Golden Knights using the leverage available to them brought about by teams looking to protect assets from being poached by Vegas.

The NHL entry draft has been less of a resource for the current makeup of the team as Hague was the lone Golden Knights draft pick (drafted 34th overall in 2017) to suit up for a game during Vegas’ 22-game run.

More to come.