The Las Vegas Golden Knights won the National Hockey League’s championship Tuesday with a dominating 9-3 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Golden Knights came into the game with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series and quickly gave their home fans plenty to cheer about as they scored twice in the first period.
Florida responded with a quick goal to start the second period, but that was as close as they would get as they tried in vain to extend their season. Las Vegas scored four more times in the period to take a 6-1 lead and leave little doubt they would be celebrating the first championship in the franchise’s short history.
The Golden Knights first appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season as an expansion team in 2018, but lost that series to the Washington Capitals.
Veteran winger Mark Stone opened the scoring for Las Vegas, and then added two more goals as he became the first player to score a hat trick in a Stanley Cup Finals game since 1996.
Winger Jonathan Marchessault, who powered Las Vegas with 13 goals and 12 assists during the playoffs, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player of the postseason.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
