Cup in Six: How Vegas Golden Knights clinched first Stanley Cup in franchise history

Captain Mark Stone set the tone and delivered for the Vegas Golden Knights

Stone scored a shorthanded goal for Vegas, opening the scoring in Game 5 and setting a tone in what would become a blowout victory.

The Golden Knights doubled their lead thanks to Nicolas Hague, who scored less than two minutes after Stone started his big night. Bobrovsky stopped Eichel. But Hague knocked in the loose puck.

After an Aaron Ekblad tally pulled Florida within 2-1, Alec Martinez restored the momentum for Vegas. Eichel forced a Florida turnover and fed Martinez on the rush for the goal.

Less than two minutes later, Reilly Smith made it 4-1, and the rout was on. The tally was personally sweet for Smith. The Panthers gave Vegas the center and a fourth-round pick in 2017, so they would take Marchessault in the 2017 expansion draft. Now, he made them pay.

From there, the story was Vegas’ captain.

Stone’s exceptional on-ice skills were evident as he patiently waited for Sergei Bobrovsky to move back towards his goal line before taking a quick snapshot, accurately hitting the top corner of the net for his opening tally. But he also displayed his powerful slapshot. He blasted Brett Howden’s one-time feed into the net, extending the Knights’ lead to 5-1.

Michael Amadio poked home a rebound to cap the four-goal second period, putting the game out of reach.

It made for an early celebration in the stands. But the players stayed in the moment.
Ivan Barbashev cleaned up a Jack Eichel rebound to make it 7-1.

Then, after Florida scored twice to pull within 7-3, Bobrovsky went to the bench for an extra attacker. That’s when Stone made history. His empty-net goal completed the first hat trick in the Stanley Cup Final since Colorado’s Peter Forsberg in 1996, also against the Panthers.

Nicolas Roy then made it 9-3 before the party officially began.

As the captain, Stone got to hoist the Stanley Cup first.