Stone’s hat trick has Sin City celebrating
LAS VEGAS — The Golden Knights delivered their city a true Vegasstyle party from dazzling passes to Mark Stone's hat trick to all-out goal celebrations, capturing the young organization's first Stanley Cup with a 9-3 romp over the beaten up and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights' brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to lead 6-1. The nine goals tied the record for the most in a Cup Final.
Vegas closed out the series in five games to win the cup before a delirious franchise-record crowd of 19,058 at T-Mobile Arena that drowned out the pregame introductions of forward Jonathan Marchessault and goalie Adin Hill and cheered all the way through the final buzzer.
Marchessault, who ended the postseason with a 10-game points streak, received the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our organization," Marchessault said. "Everybody stepped up at different times and that’s why we’re winners.”
Stone's hat trick — with the third into an empty net with 5:54 left — was the first in a Stanley Cup Final since Colorado's Peter Forsberg in 1996, also against the Panthers.
The Knights got the rest of their scoring from Nic Hague, Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Michael Amadio, Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy.
Hill came through with another strong performance that has quickly made him a Knights fan favorite, even earning “MVP! MVP!” chants in the third period. Jack Eichel, the eight-year pro playing in his first postseason, had three assists.
“This is what everyone dreams of," Eichel said. "You come to an organization like this and the expectation is to win this thing. It’s a special place to play. I can’t give everyone enough credit for putting us in this position.”