By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) -The Vegas Golden Knights hit the ultimate National Hockey League jackpot on Tuesday by crushing the visiting Florida Panthers 9-3 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in the expansion franchise’s six-year history.
With the victory, the Western Conference’s top-seeded Golden Knights closed out the best-of-seven championship series 4-1, triggering celebrations in and around the hotels and casinos along the famed Las Vegas Strip.
Vegas captain Mark Stone had three goals, Nicolas Hague, Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Michael Amadio, Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy had one apiece while Adin Hill made 31 saves.
“I can’t even describe the feelings in my stomach right now. Everything you can imagine,” said Stone.
“The grind of an 82-game season, four playoff rounds, you grind and you grind and you grind. At the end of the day, we’re the last team standing. It’s incredible.”
Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault, who had 25 points in the postseason, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
For Florida, it ended an impressive run by a resilient team that squeaked into the playoffs as the final wildcard in the Eastern Conference and then beat three of the NHL’s top four clubs to reach their first Stanley Cup Final since 1996.
The Panthers’ defeat also came a day after the Miami Heat lost to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals and ends what had been a mesmerizing two months during which both eighth-seeded teams enthralled South Florida.
The Vegas victory made good on Golden Knights owner Bill Foley’s bold prediction that the expansion team would win a Stanley Cup within their first six seasons.
“What has happened here has been simply incredible,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said before presenting the Stanley Cup to Stone. “Not only is Vegas a hockey town, it’s a championship town.”
LONG ODDS
The NHL awarded Las Vegas an expansion franchise in June 2016 and the Golden Knights enjoyed a remarkable 2017-18 debut season, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals where they lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.
But this time around the Golden Knights made the most of their Stanley Cup Final appearance, winning the first two games at home and splitting the next two in Florida.
The Panthers knew they faced long odds to fight their way back into the series. Teams holding a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final have won 36 of 37 times.
The only team to come back are the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who trailed 3-0 to the Detroit Red Wings.
After a nervous start on Tuesday, Vegas seized control just past the midway mark of the first period with Stone scoring a short-handed goal and Hague putting them 2-0 up less than two minutes later.
Aaron Ekblad put the Panthers on the board early in the second but Vegas responded with four goals in nine and a half wild minutes as Martinez, Smith, Stone and Amadio all found the net as the hosts built a commanding 6-1 lead.
Amadio’s goal came with two seconds left in the period and while the raucous Vegas crowd were already chanting “We want the Cup!”
Barbashev kept the party going when he put Vegas ahead 7-1 near the midway mark of the final period and with the game out of reach the crowd barely flinched when Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett responded shortly after.
Stone completed his hat-trick via an empty net goal with six minutes left while Roy added a late goal.
“We were swinging out of our weight class in the playoffs,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who revealed that Ekblad dealt with a broken foot, two shoulder dislocations and an oblique tear in the postseason.
“We hit four teams that had 110 points plus. One had 135. It’s not an excuse, we don’t need one. These guys have earned the right. They gave everything they had.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Additional reporting by Steve Keating; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
