*Photo from Arizona Sports*
Vegas leads series 2-0
Through two games, we have two commanding wins. Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and an assist, Brett Howden scored twice, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Florida Panthers 7-2 on Monday night in Vegas.
Vegas has now outscored the Panthers by 8 goals through two games, winning by 3 in game one and 5 on Monday night. They now sit just two games away from Hockey immortality, and in just their 6th season. Marchessault and Howden combined to score 4 of the 7 Vegas goals.
Marchessault said of the early offense in game two that "You know what? They wanted to set the tone with being undisciplined like Game 1, and we set the tone back with scoring that first goal there. But we’re still pretty far from our goal here."
It was Marchessault who started the scoring, giving Vegas a 1-0 lead on a power play goal, his 11th goal of the playoffs with Jack Eichel and Chandler Stephenson assisting. Alec Martinez then scored with 2:01 left in the period, doubling the lead to 2-1 on his first goal of the playoffs, assisted by Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev.
In the second period, Nicolas Roy started the scoring for Vegas, making the lead 3-0 on his second goal of the playoffs, coming 2:59 into the period. At the 7:10 mark of the second, it was Howden who scored, making the lead 4-0 on his 4th goal of the playoffs, with assists from Stephenson and Mark Stone.
Anton Lundell scored just 14 seconds into the 3rd period for the Panthers, making it a 4-1 game. Marchessault then scored 2:10 into the period to make it 5-1, assisted by Eichel. Michael Amadio then scored his 4th goal of the playoffs to make the score 6-1. Matthew Tkachuk scored to make it 6-2 before Howden scored on the power play to make it a 7-2 final score.
Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game that "I think our depth has been a strength all year and it is the biggest reason why we're still here, why we beat Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas and why we're ahead against Florida. I just feel that we have the best team from player one through 20."
It was Adin Hill who got the start for the Golden Knights, getting another strong start to put the Golden Knights two wins from the Stanley Cup. Hill made 29 saves on 31 shots, good for a .935 save percentage on the game.
Starting in net for the Panthers was once again Sergei Bobrovsky, who lost his second straight game. Bobrovsky allowed 4 goals on 13 shots, being pulled in the second period. Alex Lyon came on in relief and stopped 12 of the 15 shots he saw.
Tkachuk said of the series shifting to Florida that "They're halfway there and hopefully they're thinking about that a little bit as they're coming to Florida. I think that could work in our favor, but we definitely have to prepare and give everything in this next one and just get a little bit of momentum back."
Up next, the series shifts down to Florida for games 3 and 4. Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday night, with Vegas looking to take a commanding 3-0 lead and the Panthers looking to get back in the series.
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