Golden Knights charge to historic finals berth

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Golden Knights are going to the Stanley Cup Final — with a chip on their shoulder.

“Everybody on this team has something to prove,” Ryan Reaves said. “We call ourselves ‘The Golden Misfits’ for a reason. We’re doing a good job of proving everybody wrong.”

Reaves scored the winning goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves and the Golden Knights beat the Jets 2-1 Sunday to wrap up the Western Conference finals in five games.

“It’s insane,” said defenseman Deryk Engelland, who grabbed the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl after the final buzzer to celebrate with his teammates. “Your goal is always to make the playoffs. But if I were to guess I would be sitting here doing this right now, you would be a little skeptical at the time.”

Alex Tuch also scored for the Knights. They lost Game 1 in Winnipeg before winning four straight to become the first expansion team since the 1968 Blues — when the six initial expansion teams were put alone in the West — to get to the final.

“It was their time,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “They’re just playing really well.”

The Knights will meet the Lightning or Capitals in the final. The Lightning lead the Eastern finals 3-2, with Game 6 set for Monday night in Washington.

Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.

“It’s very difficult to find that positive feeling at this moment,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.

Reaves, the bruising Winnipeg native acquired from the Penguins in February, snapped a 1-1 tie with 6:39 left in the second period when he tipped Luca Sbisa’s point shot past Hellebuyck. Reeves’ last goal before Sunday came 31⁄ months ago with the Penguins.

“The guys that weren’t playing, myself included, we stayed ready,” Reaves said. “We had fun while we were doing it, but we worked hard so when we were called upon we were ready to go.”

Fleury stopped 151 of 161 shots in the series and allowed just six goals the rest of the way after giving up four in the opener.

“Everybody’s stepping up at different times,” Fleury said.

The Jets got a power play early in the third period but couldn’t muster much of anything. The Knights smothered the Jets’ attack for the next 10 minutes, with Hellebuyck having to come up with big stops on William Karlsson and Eric Haula to keep his team within one.

The Jets pressed with under 4 minutes to go, with Fleury stopping captain Blake Wheeler on the doorstep, but the Knights closed out their third straight series on the road to continue their historic run.

“All those records and everything, it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not the last team standing,” Knights center Jonathan Marchessault said. “I think we have a lot of gas left.”