OH, WHAT A KNIGHT
Vegas wraps up 1st Stanley Cup title in only 6th season of existence with Game 5 rout
LAS VEGAS — The Golden Knights delivered a true Vegas-style party — from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat trick to all-out goal celebrations — and captured their first Stanley Cup with a 9-3 romp Tuesday against the beaten-up and exhausted Panthers.
Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ six-year history, started five of the franchise’s original players — known as ‘‘the Misfits’’ — and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident Monday his team would play well and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to grab a 6-1 lead. The nine goals tied
the record for the most in a game in the Final.
‘‘Vegas, you certainly know how to throw a party,’’ commissioner Gary Bettman told the crowd. ‘‘What’s going on inside this arena and outside is incredible and a testament to what a great hockey market this is.
‘‘What has happened here has been simply incredible. Not only is Vegas a hockey town, it’s a championship town.’’
The Knights 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 as 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 goal coming into an empty net with 5:54 left — was the first in a Cup Final since the Avalanche’s Peter Forsberg in 1996. That also came 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. Martinez’s goal in the second period
came nine years to the day after he delivered the double-overtime goal in Game 5 against the Rangers to give the Kings the Cup.
Hill, meanwhile, came through with another strong performance that quickly has made him a Knights fan favorite, even earning ‘‘MVP! MVP!’’ chants in the third period. Jack Eichel 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.
‘‘They call ’em ‘the Misfits.’ Those are the guys, they built this. They built this culture. So proud to be a part of it.’’
As captain, Stone was the first to lift the Cup before handing it over to the six ‘‘Misfits,’’ each of whom got his turn skating with the trophy before handing it down the line to the rest of the team.
‘‘Unbelievable,’’ Stone said. ‘‘The look in my teammates’ eyes when I got it, one of the craziest feelings I’ve ever had. I can’t even describe the feelings in my stomach right now. It’s everything you can imagine. The grind of an 82-game season and four playoff rounds. You grind and you grind and you grind.’’
Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for the Panthers, but goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was overwhelmed in another tough performance against the Knights.
Missing from the Panthers’ lineup was star forward Matthew Tkachuk, the king of game-winning shots during the playoffs but never the same after crushing blow to his shoulder by the Knights’ Keegan Kolesar in Game 3.