*Photo from the Tampa Bay Times*
Vegas leads series 3-1
One more win, and immortality is secured in the hockey world. Chandler Stephenson scored twice, Mark Stone had two assists, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers with a 3-2 victory on Saturday night in Sunrise.
After losing game 3 in overtime, the Golden Knights bounced back and built an early lead in game 4 they never gave up. Now, in their second trip to the Stanley Cup Final in their 6 year history, the Golden Knights can win it for the first time with one more win in the series.
Stephenson said of the next game that "It's a different game than the other ones, a lot more emotion, a lot more of everything. Everybody knows what's going to be there. I think just try to play. That's the biggest thing. Being at home too, the fans, everybody is going to be into it. The emotion is going to be high. Adrenaline. Everything. The biggest thing is just be composed. Shift by shift. It's all the cliches, but I feel confident."
On the scoresheet for the Golden Knights, Stephenson's two goals led the team, giving him two goals and 3 assists in the Cup Final this year. Stone and Nicolas Hague had two assists each for the Golden Knights as 6 total Vegas skaters recorded a point.
It was Stephenson who started the scoring, making it 1-0 Vegas just 1:39 into the game, assisted by Stone and Zach Whitecloud. Stephenson scored again 7:28 into the second period, making it 2-0 with assists from Stone and Hague. William Karlsson then made it 3-0 with his 11th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Hague and Jonathan Marchessault.
The Panthers then got themselves on the board. Brandon Montour scored at the 16:09 mark of the second period, making it a 3-1 game on his 8th goal of the playoffs. The only goal of the 3rd period came from Aleksander Barkov, making the score 3-2 on his 5th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Montour and Anton Lundell.
Stephenson said of winning on the road that "We just didn't want to lose. We wanted to push as best we could, try to take their fans out of it. I thought we did a lot of good things last game and wanted to try to continue that tonight, and just try to have a killer instinct."
Once again, Adin Hill was in net for the Golden Knights, winning his 3rd game out of 4 in the series. Hill made 29 saves on the 31 shots he was tested with by the Panthers, which was good for a .935 save percentage in the win.
Getting the start for the Panthers was Sergei Bobrovsky, who lost his 3rd out of 4 games in the series. Bobrovsky played well, stopping 28 out of the 31 shots on goal that the Golden Knights had, giving him a .903 save percentage.
Asked about being down 3-1 and their season in jeopardy, Barkov said that "You've got to win 4. It's 3-1. I know they're one win away, we're three wins away, but all we can do is think about one game, bringing it back to Florida and that's our goal. That's what we want to do in Vegas, go there and try to win that game."
Up next, game 5 of the series is on Tuesday night as it shifts back to Vegas. There, the Golden Knights will look to win their first Stanley Cup in just their 6th year in the league. Meanwhile, the Panthers need to win to force a game 6 and keep their cup dreams alive.
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