Best Knight ever: Vegas dominates en route to 1st Stanley Cup

LAS VEGAS — 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.

Hill was particularly sharp in the first period, with point blank saves on Anton Lundell and Aleksander Barkov. The latter save on the power play preceded the Golden Knights’ first goal. A turnover by Sam Bennett sprung Knights captain Mark Stone on a 2-on-1 with Chandler Stevenson. Stone patiently waited until defenseman Brandon Montour slid out of position and stopped in front of the crease. He snapped into the top corner of the net for a shorthanded goal and a 1-0 lead at 11:52.

The Knights made it 2-0 just 1:49 later. Center Jack Eichel flew into the attacking zone and put a backhand shot off of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who lost his stick. A scramble ensued in the crease until defenseman Nicholas Hague slid the puck into the net at 13:41.

The referee’s whistle blew before the puck was put over the goal line. However, the NHL confirmed to ESPN that the goal was allowed under the “culmination of a continuous play” rule, as the puck was in motion towards the goal line when the whistle sounded.

The first period ended with the Knights up 2-0. Florida struck back just 2:15 into the second period. Forward Nick Cousin stripped Knights winger Ivan Barbashev of the puck and passed it back to defenseman Aaron Ekblad, whose shot from the blueline found its way past Hill. It was Ekblad’s second of the playoffs.

But the Knights pulled away later in the second period with two goals just 1:45 apart. Their top line completed a long shift with a pass from Eichel to defenseman Alec Martinez, who fired the puck past Bobrovsky for his second goal of the playoffs.

Martinez is no stranger to Stanley Cup Final Game 5 heroics: His double-overtime goal in 2014 won the Stanley Cup for the Los Angeles Kings.

Reilly Smith scored his fourth goal of the playoffs at 12:13 to make it 4-1. The onslaught was on. Stone scored again, on a stoppable shot for Bobrovsky, at 17:15. Then the real dagger: Michael Amadio scored with 1.2 seconds remaining in the period on a delayed penalty against Florida to extend the lead to 6-1.

The Knights made it 7-1 with 11:38 left in the third period, as another Eichel backhand shot rebounded off of Bobrovsky and Barbashev put it home.

The Panthers cut the lead to 7-2 just 25 seconds later on a goal by Sam Reinhart. Another Panthers goal by Sam Bennett made it 7-3, but it was too little, too late. Stone completed his hat trick with an empty net goal with 5:54 left in the game to make it 8-3.

It was the first hat trick in the Stanley Cup Final since Colorado Avalanche star Peter Forsberg had one in Game 2 of 1996 — against the Florida Panthers.

The Knights celebrated at the final buzzer as the gold-clad Vegas fans cheered wildly. They previously made the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 during their inaugural season and over time have turned this new NHL market into one of the league’s hottest fan bases.

A few fans raised signs that read: “We’ve Been Waiting 6 Long Years For This.”