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A three-goal third period was the difference maker in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 to take a 1-0 series lead.
Defenseman Zach Whitecloud, Captain Mark Stone and left-winger Reilly Smith were all responsible for the three goal eruption in the final frame. All three goals happened within 12 minutes of each other which included an empty net goal by Smith, his third goal of the playoffs.
“Every guy on this team is looking to contribute in different ways,” Whitecloud said.
Game 2 of this best-of-seven championship series will take place on Monday at 5 p.m. PST inside the confines of T-Mobile Arena. All games in the Stanley Cup Finals including Game 2 can be seen on TNT & TBS nationwide.
Along with scoring three goals in the third period of a tied game, the Knights also got some exceptional goalie play out of starting goaltender Adin Hill who has started most of the games for Vegas this postseason.
“We’re three [wins] away,” Hill said. “The job’s not finished.”
Hill finished his night with 33 saves on 36 shots faced for a final save percentage of .943 in the victory.
“We didn’t play our best game in front of him,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Sometimes, Game 1’s go like that. Eventually, we were able to find a rhythm and score some goals for him so we didn’t have to be perfect.”
Coming into this series, these teams had similar routes to getting into the Finals. For the Panthers, they finished off a 4-0 sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
For the Golden Knights, they won the first three games of their Western Conference Finals series against the Dallas Stars. Dallas won the next two games before Vegas won the series in Game 6 in Dallas.
Regardless of who wins this series, it will be the first Stanley Cup for either team. Both teams also now have two conference championships in their team history.
The first period saw each team play good hockey in stretches. Florida scored the opening goal of the Stanley Cup Finals 9:40 into the game when center Eric Staal scored his second goal of the playoffs shorthanded to give the 1-0 advantage to the visitors.
Right-winger Jonathan Marchessault made sure to get the hometown Knights on the board before the period ended to make it a 1-1 tie at the end of the first period. This was Marchessault’s 10th goal of these playoffs and it came via the Golden Knights power play.
With one ‘Original Misfit’ scoring in Marchessault, that opened the door for another member of the Year 1 Golden Knights to light the lamp when defenseman Shea Theodore scored with just over nine minutes to go in the middle frame.
“Having not scored in the playoffs, I was looking for one,” Theodore said. “I guess tonight is a pretty good night to get the first one.”
Marchessault and Theodore are two of the six players still on the Golden Knights since the team’s inaugural season.
“Shea took over tonight,” Marchessault said. “He’s one of the guys that stepped up tonight and I’m definitely happy to see him on the board.”
Just when it looked like Vegas was going to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission, Florida’s Anthony Duclair scored his fourth goal of the playoffs to tie the game up at two with 11 seconds left in the second period. The game would be tied at two heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation.
The Knights saved their best period for last as they scored three straight times during the final period to grab a three-goal lead and never look back en route to the victory.