Midway through the second period, Vegas began controlling the puck in the Panthers end. Vegas wing Brett Howden and Stone each broke in alone on Bobrovsky in the first period and came up with nothing.Įarly in the second period, Cousins had the puck at the goalmouth of an empty net when Hill reached back and somehow stopped the puck with his stick. Jonathan Marchessault, who went to Vegas from the Panthers in the expansion draft in 2017, scored on a tic-tac-toe passing-sequence play.īoth goalies had their moments. The Panthers’ penalty-kill gave that back later in the period. The Panthers’ Eric Staal took the puck behind the Vegas net and scored on a short-handed wraparound. (“Shame! Shame!” the Knights fans chanted at him.) Only Panther wing Nick Cousins was hit with a two-minute roughing penalty after that first-period scrum. Even Vegas goalie Adin Hill was involved in the pushing and punching midway through the first period as team made on-ice introductions in the Final. That’s pretty much how Game 1 opened, too. There was an on-ice melee soon after that to close the game and the Panthers’ Smash Brothers, Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, were given game misconducts, as was Vegas center Chandler Stephenson. Reilly Smith, another former Panther, added an empty net goal for the 5-2 final.

His shot and goal made it 4-2 with just 6:28 to go. Vegas then put away the game when Matthew Tkachuk’s clearing pass was batted down by the Golden Knights’ Mark Stone in front of the Panthers’ net. The Panthers had an ensuing power play that didn’t produce, a theme this night as they went 0 for 3 on the man advantage.

In a 2-2 game, defenseman Zach Whitecloud made a somewhat pedestrian shot from inside the blue line for the game-winner, one that found its way under Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove nearly seven minutes into the third period. This one ended in an uncommon way for a Panthers’ postseason that’s thrived on close wins.

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